To the editor:
As her lead accomplishment, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in her Condition of the State speech that her signature program—Future Ready Iowa—had met its goal two years early.
What an incredible public policy achievement, right? Wrong. It was a shameful sleight of hand meant to fool the public.
Iowa does not have enough skilled workers to sustain a vital state economy. From its inception in 2017, the stated goal of Future Ready Iowa was to have 70% of working-age Iowans attain a post-high school license, certification or degree by 2025.
The initial report on the program said that “it is impossible to overstate the importance of reaching this goal.” It further stated that “solving Iowa’s workforce crisis is an economic imperative.” The program was “critical” to Iowa’s future economic strength.
For its annual benchmark, the program adopted the data provided by the Iowa Workforce Development’s Laborshed Survey and in particular, that survey’s reported percentage of “total completers beyond high school.”
The problem? The program was not working for lack of sufficient funding and focus on helping minority students complete post-secondary programs. Recently, the benchmark survey showed the percentage of completers is 61.6% — a full 8.4% short of the program’s 70% goal. Something had to be done.
Rather than committing some of Iowa’s forecasted $2.1 billion budget surplus to improve the program, Reynolds decided to change both the goal of the program and the benchmark used to measure progress. For the first time in the seven years of the program, Reynolds changed the goal of the program from the completion of a postsecondary educational program to having obtained only “some form of post-high school education or training.”
Also for the first time, the governor used as its benchmark the “total post-secondary completers” plus “post-secondary non-completers (no award) who found value in education/training.” Lucky for the Governor, that percentage per the Laborshed survey was 71.8%. With the goal posts successfully moved closer and the public duped, Reynolds declared the program a great success.
Instead of a jewel in her crown, the utter failure of the Future Ready Iowa program to achieve its real goal based upon the correct benchmark is a ringing indictment of Reynolds’ “window dressing” philosophy of governance. Frequently, she superficially presents a program designed only to create a favorable impression, then underfunds it or misfocuses it or both.
Reynolds should not escape accountability for the failure to have a workforce ready for Iowa’s economic future by misleading the public about the results of her Future Ready Iowa program.
Tom Walton, chair of the Dallas County Democrats
Van Meter
Thanks for a fine piece, Tom. Hesham governance is destroying our state.
It is the GOP way