Iowa Stimulus: Should we be happy about our bounty?

March 2, 2009 by Doug Mitchell
Filed under: News

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: Image via Wikipedia

Ironic isn’t it…that I should read the Des Moines Register headline, “Stimulus Includes More than $600 Million for Iowa Education” and be incensed. Let’s put aside the rage of the Obama spending plan for the moment and focus on the state level. Senator Harkin speaking at Des Moines area Community College (DMACC) spoke about how the spending prepares our state for the future economy.

“The best place to do that is education,” said Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, who addressed several dozen educational leaders at the Urban Campus of Des Moines Area Community College. “We need a learned work force in the future. We need to retrain people for the long-term growth in our country,” Harkin said.

No one will disagree that grassroots education of our youth is a most admirable and desirable long term plan of any civilized society. But out of $600 million:

There is only $3.2 million dollars allocated for classroom technology!

What’s worse is that the money is allocated to: “Purchase new computers and software, and for professional development to ensure technology is effectively used by students.” That doesn’t sound AT ALL like more and more modern computers and software for kids in classrooms. My wife and volunteer in my son’s kindergarten classroom where he uses simple web based programs (yes even my 6 year old is convinced that SaaS is the way to go). Those Dell’s are already old and slow.

Some research shows that the Iowa Department of Education has the total certified enrollment in Iowa schools at 477,019. Now, I’d like to revolutionize the state like the rest of you. What would you say we bought some nice NetBooks for every single student in the state? Why that’s outrageous Doug!!! Is it? That’s only $95,403,800 as I’m sure we could get the price down to $200 or less when buying nearly a half a million units. Imagine being that sales rep! (She’d be fired well ahead of getting that commission check since the lawsuit would be far cheaper than the commission). Sound good? Let me throw some water on your happy fire.

Nearly two thirds of what it would take to buy a laptop for EVERY SINGLE CHILD IN SCHOOL is being spent on a line item that will likely make crinkley red lines appear in your eyes:

Title I: $65.6 million for Title 1 Education for the Disadvantaged to help close the achievement gap and enable vulnerable students to reach their potential.

Now before I recieve hate mail from the teacher’s unions, educators, and administrators…I realize I’m oversimplifying to make a point. This is known as modeling behavior. Closing achievement gaps and enabling the vulnerable to reach their potential sounds like marketing material from a late 90′s dot com sharade! It does not sound like a clear plan to use funds that we ultimately must generate from our own pockets. Let us not forget that “the government” is us people.

Take a look at the rest of the numbers and you tell me how to “ensure we educate our kids for the new economy.” I’m sure we’ll hear praises about how, “We’re gettin’ ours” out of this package but I for one am not.

Both campaigns spent untold sums of technology on winning. Why can’t the winners come together and show our youth what technology is all about?