DES MOINES, Iowa — As the start of the 2020-21 school year approaches, there's still a ton of controversy surrounding the state's Return to Learn plan; even from one who helped write it in the first place.
Last week, school boards sat down and deliberated how they planned to bring students back in the fall as safely as possible while also keeping within the state's parameters, some deciding to defy the governor's proclamation altogether.
Per the proclamation issued by Gov. Kim Reynolds last month, schools have to make in-person learning the primary means of learning, which means schools can't go to a remote learning plan for more than 50 percent of the time unless otherwise given permission from the state.
But according to some, that's not necessarily set in stone. Sen. Herman Quirmbach of Ames was the ranking democrat on the Education committee that put the plan together in the first place, and he says the 50 percent threshold for schools to keep under is never explicitly talked about in the law.
The law reads: "Unless explicitly authorized in a proclamation, school districts shall not take action to provide instruction primarily through remote learning opportunities."
"That's an if/then statement; it doesn't say that the proclamation should or should not authorize it. All it says is that if a school wants to go 100 percent online, the governor's proclamation has to say it's okay," Sen. Quirmbach said.
"The governor could have chosen to do that. She chose not to."
However, Iowa Speaker of the House Pat Grassley says it's the intent, not the wording, that matters.
The law never explicitly mentions any number or percentile, but the Iowa Department of Education has interpreted the word "primarily" to mean more than 50 percent of the time.