With all the education talk before the Nov. 5 election, Ed Chabal should be a shoo-in to be elected to the Iowa state senate in District 46 (located in Iowa, Washington, and parts of Johnson counties). He served as director of business and finance for the Mount Pleasant Community School District from 1997 until this summer. He knows school finance inside and out, and education is the largest part of the state’s annual budget. Do the math and district voters should vote for Chabal because of this expertise.
When last April the Iowa City Community School District announced closure of Hills Elementary School, local residents were taken aback by the speed at which things moved. Chabal’s opponent, incumbent state senator Dawn Driscoll, was johnny on the spot to devise a solution, one that included consolidating Hills with Lone Tree elementary schools.
My bone of contention is that had Driscoll been doing a better job of funding rural public schools while in the legislature, the whole thing may have been averted. Hills may have retained its school. Driscoll’s April “solutions” discussion with city council and the community is duplicitous insofar as she was helping solve a problem she created by under-funding public education. Ed Chabal knows better than this.
Why do citizens vote against their best interests? Education received in the K-12 system contributes to this. Let’s make Iowa’s K-12 education system the best in the nation again, beginning by electing Ed Chabal to the state senate in District 46 on Nov. 5.
To learn more about Ed Chabal’s campaign for state senate, go to https://www.edforiowa.com/.
~ published as a letter to the editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Oct. 20, 2024.
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