Students, teachers, administrators, parents, and members of the Davenport school board are in Des Moines today (Monday) for their annual lobby day. The board recently gave its support to superintendent Art Tate, who wants to spend more money next year than the state funding formula allows. Despite having millions of dollars in reserve funds, the Davenport district is forced to spend much less per student than nearby districts. School board president Ralph Johanson says they have a very specific goal in mind at the lobby day.

“What we really need is a fundamental change to the funding formula,” Johanson says. “We’re looking for some legislators who have the fortitude to do what’s right and to make some of those changes, even if it takes a long time.” As they did last year, students from Davenport will wear t-shirts saying, “I’m Worth Less,” when they meet with the governor and legislators.

(Radio Iowa)

Senator Chuck Grassley uses the phrase “standard practice” to describe the scenario of leaving a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court until a new president takes office in 2017. Soon after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death was announced Saturday, the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate said Scalia’s seat on the court should not be filled by President Obama. Grassley is chairman of the committee that would hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee.

President Obama intends to nominate a replacement, but Grassley says there is a “huge divide in the country” and the senate will “defer to the American people” and wait to vote on the NEXT president’s pick for the nation’s highest court. Grassley says it’s a “standard practice” not to have this kind of a decision made in an election year.

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in February of 1988. But President Reagan had nominated Kennedy in November of 1987 after his two other picks had failed to win senate confirmation.

(Radio Iowa)