Gazette Daily News Briefing, May 5
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 5.
Friday will start sunny and pleasant, with a chance for some rain as the day goes on. According to the National Weather Service it will start out mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with temperatures reaching a high of 70 degrees. It will become increasingly cloudy as the day goes on, though, and there will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3 p.m. The overall average chance of precipitation is listed at 30 percent.
Shortly after noon Thursday, Iowa lawmakers concluded their work for the year. Unless a special session is called, they will not return to resume their work at the Iowa Capitol until next January.
Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature frequently used the word “historic” in their descriptions of the 2023 session.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, said Republicans followed through on the priorities “that we laid out to Iowans,” including property tax relief and “making sure that parents were a part of their children’s education,” whether through school choice or school transparency requirements for curriculum and books.
Meanwhile, Democrats did not mince words when describing their view of the 2023 session.
Sen. Zach Wahls, the leader of the Senate Democrats from Coralville, told reporters the session was “one of the most divisive and cruel ever seen in the history of the Iowa Legislature,” and said state house Republicans “poured gasoline on the flames of the culture war.”
Wahls criticized Republicans for the private school financial assistance program, their more strict regulation of books in K-12 schools with sexual content, and legislation that impacts transgender children in Iowa.
As these comments suggest, most bills were passed along party lines, with Republicans passing most of their agenda without needing, or receiving, any support from Democrats.
They did agree on a few things, such as a property tax reform bill that aims to lower property taxes by restricting how much funding schools and local governments can raise from increased growth to property values over a given time period. Governor Kim Reynolds signed that bill, almost unanimously approved by state lawmakers, on Thursday.
Kirkwood Community College named its new president on Thursday.
Nearly 10 years after leaving her vice presidential post at Kirkwood Community College for a senior role at ACT, Kristie Fisher has landed the premiere post atop Eastern Iowa’s largest community college.
Fisher had spent her last four years leading the 2,442-student Iowa Valley Community College District as its chancellor and president.
She arrives during challenging times for higher education. All of Iowa’s community colleges have lost students in recent years.
While seven of the state’s community colleges saw slight enrollment upticks in the fall, Kirkwood was among eight that saw a dip — although it remains the state’s second largest behind Des Moines Area Community College.
“One of the things that I think not just Kirkwood but all community colleges are going to be facing is the fact that there's so much learning loss from the time of the pandemic,” she said to the question of big issues she’ll have to tackle as Kirkwood president. “I think we're going to see that for the next decade.”
