Letter to the Editor: In Support of Malcolm Price Laboratory School Staying Open

Our grand daughter Rachael Decker has recently started attending MPLS as a result of re-locating to Iowa. It was very apparent from our phone calls to her and my daughter and son-in-law that Rachael enjoyed her school environment very much and was being challenged in this new environment. Even though she is in Pre-K, she is currently reading at a 2-3rd grade level and assisting other children learning how to read.

We were pleased to hear that she had such a great learning environment to hopefully enable her to maximize her learning to best of her ability. As a result of the recent announcement by Mr. Allen to close MPLS I have spent several hours reading/learning more about the program at UNI.

From all of the information I have read (UNI/MPLS WEB sites and newspaper articles), it is apparent to me that this school/program has been a very positive influence on the quality of the teachers and the teaching programs that they are using to enhance the quality of education in Iowa and indirectly the US. The fact that UNI is rated amongst the top 5 teaching universities in the country is a testament to that fact.

I have been a firm believer that we (the US in general) needs to do anything we can to enable our education system to improve the quality of education being delivered so that the students are able to effectively compete in the globally competitive economy. The MPLS program appears to be doing many positive things to achieve that very important goal.

I have searched for information on why Mr. Allen has made this decision to close the school and have not been able to find any information. It does not appear on the surface to be direct cost driven. It would seem to be motivated by non-cost related issues since he is refusing to discuss/disclose the decision criteria and is rushing the decision to close the school with no open communication and or discussion with the personnel impacted by the decision.

“Budget cuts” is a general term and it is not clear to me that the closing of the MPLS program represents the most effective way to reduce spending and improve education of our youngsters, when salaries at Iowa Universities represent 70% of University expenses. From the information I have been able to locate, it appears to me that Mr. Allen has arbitrarily decided to close MPLS with no analysis being done regarding the total business impact to the University, the community and to the state of Iowa’s education quality. There is no understanding or information available on how he will replace the R&D component for the education program at UNI.

Why is Mr. Allen “fixing” something that is not broken? The prudent thing to any reasonable person would seem to be to tweak the program it to make it better and where able less costly, not take it apart and then try to figure out how to replace it. This is especially true of something that appears to helping the state of Iowa and the US compete more effectively in the challenging global economic environment we are in now and in the future by offer one of the best educational opportunities in the country .

Sincerely, Dennis and Cathy Maurer