Signed by Governor Chet Culver

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that revises laws relating to the public education system in order to make Iowa eligible to receive federal Race to the Top education funds.

Highlights:

-Requires a school district with one or more schools identified as 'persistently lowest achieving' to implement one or more of the interventions mandated by the U.S. Department of Education (Sec. 1). -Requires a school district that must implement the aforementioned intervention(s) to meet with the teacher's union to negotiate an agreement on the specific intervention(s) to be implemented, and specifies that the terms of any collective bargaining agreement shall remain in effect and unaltered except as specifically designated in the intervention agreement (Sec. 1). -Specifies that if the teacher's union and school district fail to reach an intervention agreement within the specified time period, even after an impartial person has been selected by both parties and has served as mediator, the school district shall not receive any school improvement funds under Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 for the relevant 'persistently lowest-achieving' school (Sec. 1). -Expands the stated purposes of charter schools in Iowa to include the following aims (Sec. 4):

-Creating different organizational structures for continuous learner progress; -Allowing greater flexibility to meet the education needs of a diverse and constantly changing student population; and -Allowing for the allocation of resources in innovative ways through implementation of specialized school budgets for the benefit of the schools served.

-Allows for the establishment of 'innovation zone schools' to encourage "diverse approaches to learning" in individual schools, and specifies that 'innovation zone schools' shall share the same purposes as charter schools (Secs. 3 & 5). -Establishes requirements that schools must meet in order to become 'innovation zone schools,' including requirements that the relevant 'innovation zone consortium' demonstrate that 50 percent or more of teachers working at the school and 50 percent of parents and guardians whose children attend the school support the school becoming an 'innovation zone school' (Sec. 10). -Defines 'innovation zone consortium' as a consortium of at least 2 school districts and an area education agency in which one or more of the school districts is located that receives approval to establish an 'innovation zone school' (Sec. 9). -Limits the State Board of Education to approving no more than 10 'innovation zone consortium' applications (Sec. 10). -Repeals the provision of existing law that limited the State Board of Education to approving no more than 20 charter school applications (Sec. 10). -Expands the number of reasons that a contract for the establishment of a charter school may be revoked to include failure to show an improvement in student progress over levels that existed prior to the establishment of a charter school as sufficient reason for such revocation, and specifies that this and other reasons for charter school contract revocation shall also apply to the contracts of 'innovation zone schools' (Sec. 19). -Repeals a provision of existing law that set a future repeal date for Chapter 256F, Code 2009 (Charter Schools statutes) of July 1, 2011 (Sec. 23).

Full Bill Text