Action Items Submitted by Iowa's Peace & Justice Caucus for the 2007 Iowa Delegate Assembly

New Business Items

Iowa Peace & Justice Caucus New Business Item 1: The ISEA calls for the NEA to petition the U.S. government to remove all American troops from Iraq as soon as possible.

RATIONALE:

Our Iraq war has been flawed since its inception, both in its underlying premises and as well as in its execution. Our treatment of some prisoners has been shameful, and our continued presence there further exacerbates an already untenable situation. We cannot continue putting our honorable soldiers at unnecessary risk, creating the conditions which increase, not quell threats of future terrorism, and harming our nation’s ability to serve as a respected leader in the world.

Iowa Peace & Justice Caucus New Item #2: The ISEA calls for the NEA to petition Congress for the repeal of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

RATIONALE:

This new law eliminates Habeas Corpus for those our government wishes to have “disappear.” They can be arrested, held indefinitely without trial, and treated in any manner the President or his designee determines, even if it violates generally accepted treatment of prisoners.


Iowa Peace & Justice Caucus New Business Item # 3: The ISEA calls for the NEA to lobby Congress to seek an end to American torture of prisoners presently under our government’s control.

RATIONALE:

As one of the signers of the Geneva Convention, the U.S. Government continues to violate prisoner guidelines it once agreed to, and, by its actions, it continues to shame Americans, harms our relations with other nations and puts our nation and military at increased risk for retaliation.

Iowa Peace & Justice Caucus New Business Item # 4: The ISEA calls for the NEA to lobby Congress to completely overhaul the current, fundamentally flawed “No Child Left Behind” version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

RATIONALE:

The basic premises behind NCLB are fallacious. We must have an ESEA that moves beyond a top-down, simplistic accountability framework to a framework based on shared responsibility, trust, equity, and quality teaching and learning, with federal support not control, that empowers youth to thrive in a democratic society and diverse, changing world. We must have an ESEA that tries to help public schools, not hurt them.

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL

First Tier, Part I, Adequate Financial Support for Public Education #6.

e. The ISEA supports developing a funding mechanism with a greater reliance on income taxes rather than property taxes and other forms of taxation.

RATIONALE:

The present system of school funding relies heavily on property taxes as a source for funding and gives a tremendous advantage to those school districts already rich in property taxes. The 1971 funding formula was meant to correct that but has not been allowed to operate properly; thus we have a significant disparity in funding from district to district. There must be equity.