Gazette Daily News Briefing, February 6

This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, February 6th.

According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have patchy fog before 9 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area today. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 43. Breezy, with a southeast wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph. Then tonight, we have a 30 percent chance of rain before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32.

Education Savings Accounts — tuition provided by the state for private school — could allow private schools to increase teacher and administrator salaries, reducing the pay gap between private and public school educators. Teachers at St. Joseph School, a Catholic school in Marion, are paid about 15 percent less than teachers at public schools in the area, Principal Casey Kettmann said. The annual public school teacher salary in Iowa generally ranges between $45K and $65K. Under a new law signed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds last month, all public school students and thousands of private school students will become eligible to receive a roughly $7,600 education savings account per year to pay for tuition and other expenses at a private school. The program is expected to cost $107 million in the first year and by 2027, when phased in, will cost $345 million. Public school districts will receive an estimated $1,205 in funding from the state for each student who lives in the district but attends a private school — not only for students who choose to leave for private schools, but students who already are in them.

In Iowa women’s basketball, Caitlin Clark assembled her third triple-double of the season (and the ninth of her career), and sixth-ranked Iowa smoked Penn State for the second time this season, 95-51, in a Big Ten women’s basketball game Sunday afternoon in Pennsylvania. The Hawkeyes won their eighth straight game, and their biggest game yet — at No. 4 Indiana, on Thursday — awaits, with first place at stake. Clark posted 23 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists. Monika Czinano added 14 points, hitting 7 of 10 field-goal attempts.

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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen