With much of the 2024 Iowa Legislative Session being dominated by education related bills, there was one that stood out to one Senator.

Senator for District 12 Amy Sinclair said the education bill that was probably one of her favorites was the Agriculture Education Curriculum bill for high schools. She tells Raccoon Valley radio that it allows students to count agribusiness and agriscience courses towards their math and science requirements for graduation.

“There’s a lot of good science and math that’s involved in those ag related courses. And it seems silly in an ag focused state like Iowa, is that we weren’t giving the opportunity for that solid math and science work that comes out of the agriculture arena to be used for their required graduation classes in math and science. And we really just wanted to fix that.”

Sinclair mentions that this will allow students who wish to have a career in the agriculture field to be able to take the courses and still meet requirements for graduation, while obtaining more knowledge in the agriculture field. She adds that this is especially important in schools serving rural areas, where there seems to be a higher number of students who have an interest in agriculture, whether it be related to farming, animals, or other parts of the field.