Senate President Pam Jochum
May 2, 2014
When we began the 2014 session of the 85th General Assembly, I urged us to create a rising tide to lift all boats. The recovery from the 2008-2009 Great Recession has been slow and has still left too many workers and families struggling to make ends meet.
Education has always been, and remains, the great equalizer.
On that front, the 85th General Assembly has scored a number of successes to build a stronger foundation for our children and for workers seeking to upgrade their skills to meet the changing demands of the 21st Century economy.
That’s why we increased childcare assistance to help families where parents are working part-time while improving their skills and boosted Iowa’s child and dependent tax credit to ease the financial burden for families.
We created a $2,500 tax credit for adoption related expenses to assist more families in providing a stable and nurturing home for more children.
Furthermore, to ensure a good start for our youngest Iowans, we invested an additional $87 million in educational opportunities to ensure a brighter future for Iowa and our nation. Those opportunities include:
- One-on-one help for students struggling to learn to read and write in the early years of their academic career;
- Increasing our investment in higher education by freezing tuition at our three State Universities for another year and slowing the rising cost of higher education at our 15 Community Colleges and 28 private colleges;
- Internship opportunities for students studying science, technology, engineering and math; and expanding apprenticeship and skilled worker programs at our Community Colleges.
In addition, we jumpstarted the recruitment of the next generation of great teachers by making investments to improve the curriculum of Iowa’s teacher preparation courses as well as the teacher and administrator mentoring programs to improve classroom results.
I cannot close without mentioning our achievements in providing affordable, quality healthcare for thousands of previously uninsured Iowans, the reform measures in Iowa’s property tax system to make it more fair and equitable, the dozens of programs to assist Iowa’s veterans with education, homeownership, and employment, and the significant investments made to improve and protect our land, water and air.
What’s more, we forged partnerships with local communities through flood mitigation programs to protect our homes, farms, and businesses from natural disasters and made significant investments to improve the quality of life through recreational and cultural opportunities.
Finally, once again, we stepped up to the plate to protect and ensure the civil rights of all Iowans.
I want to thank every Senator and Representative for their dedicated service to the people of Iowa. More importantly, I want to thank the people of Iowa who have entrusted their faith in each of us and have given us the opportunity of a lifetime to serve in the Iowa Legislature.
We can all be proud of the significant progress we made to create a rising tide to lift all boats.
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