The Legislative House is passing their version of a bill affecting Area Education Agencies (AEA’s), which caught Iowa Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott by surprise, amongst others.

Trone-Garriott tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the House conjured up their own version of the AEA bill, prompting disapproval from many people. She elaborates that the night before the debate, the House released an amendment that changed the bill again without input from the public. Garriott even says the Republicans and Democrats were unaware too. She explains that this version of the bill puts the Department of Education in control, raising concerns.

“We have found the department to not be very responsive when there are problems, but we can’t get them to answer questions. They’re not really willing to give responses to legislators when we identify issues and again this is another bill that’s in search of a problem.”

Trone-Garriott mentions that during the last four years, she never heard complaints from the public about needing to reform the AEA’s. She fears that a bill from the legislature will hinder the ability to improve the role of AEA’s.