NHS grad, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett speaks at Rotary Club

Rotary Club of Newton welcomed guest speaker Ron Corbett Tuesday afternoon to share his views on Iowa’s education policy.

Corbett, who is a Newton High School graduate and mayor of Cedar Rapids, runs a think tank called Engage Iowa. Engage Iowa describes itself as a conservative, freedom-focused policy incubator that crafts common sense solutions to move the state forward economically, educationally and environmentally.

Later on Tuesday, the former Speaker of the Iowa House announced his candidacy for governor. He is expected to challenge Gov. Kim Reynolds in the 2018 Republican primary.

At the Newton Rotary Club gathering, Corbett discussed the state’s failure on K-12 education funding. The former 13-year Republican state representative is calling for Iowa to create an additional pool of funds to go toward a performance-based pay system for public school teachers.

In addition, Corbett wants to set up a Principal’s Academy for the state’s principals and an innovation fund for public schools.

The legislature has approved historically low state supplemental aid for public schools for the last several years. Recalling his time as an athlete at NHS, Corbett compared public education to football.

“The game of football has changed a little bit over the years, but there’s two things that haven’t changed — blocking and tackling,” Corbett said. “You have to take care of those fundamentals … The same is true in public education — teachers and principals.”

Corbett said school districts should work to build incentive-based pay models for teachers. Of course, local districts can only create such a system if they have the funds to do so. That is where Corbett’s plan to create an additional pool of state funds specifically for teacher pay comes in.

“I think most people would say it’s easier to try and get the best and the brightest if you have a higher average salary versus a lower average salary,” he said.

School districts such as Ankeny and Waukee, Corbett said, he’s not too worried about. It’s the poorer districts with declining student populations that will be affected the most. Using the current formula for teacher pay, he said, the disparity between richer school districts and poorer ones will grow.

“That’s why it’s imperative for the state to come up with the resources, so there isn’t that inequity in the system,” Corbett said.

The guest speaker also provided copies of his recently published book, “Beyond Promises,” to the Rotary members. In one of the chapters, Corbett details his formative years in Newton.

“I have great memories of Newton,” he said. “It was a wonderful place to grow up in the 70s.”

It was great to be back in town and still see on the water tower, “Red Pride,” he said. It serves as a reminder for how important community pride is for the mayor of Iowa’s second most populated city.

When Cedar Rapids was hit with a massive flood in 2008, one of Corbett’s responsibilities as mayor, he said, was to build up confidence in the community. His experience with Red Pride as a teenager helped him deal with the natural disaster.

“Remembering almost 40 years ago growing up in Newton and experiencing Red Pride has really helped guide me over the years,” he said.

Contact Justin Jagler at 641-792-3121 ext 6532 or jjagler@newtondailynews.com