A public education bill that the Iowa Senate passed earlier this legislative session was recently amended by the House and sent back to the Senate.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green (R-Boone) tells Raccoon Valley Radio the “parental involvement in education” bill had several changes that the House made. He explains that the House eliminated the Senate’s original proposal of requiring a civics test for high school students, which he was disappointed with. Green says some additions the House made included House File 608 that would require an individual in a public school building to be trained to handle seizures and House File 255 for an alternative teacher licensure.

“What that would do is create more avenues for teachers to become licensed and give more local control to the schools as far as who they feel is competent to become new teachers is my understanding. So I think that’s a good piece that the House added on.”  

Green talks about a critical piece of the legislation he originally supported when the Senate passed this bill to the House.

“The Senate File that I strongly supported, which would force schools to post what books are available to their students within their schools, and then make it very clear what the process is for a parent to go about challenging and removing books. It just makes it very clear.”  

Green adds he doesn’t want to take away a school board’s authority to make decisions on appropriate materials in classrooms, but to make it easy for parents to challenge something they feel could be inappropriate.