Several representatives from the colleges of Human Science and Liberal Arts and Science gathered for a roundtable discussion about Gov. Terry Branstad’s education reform proposal.

Pamela White, dean of the College of Human Science, facilitated the discussion.

The roundtable discussed both the pros and cons of the governor’s proposal.

Participants said one of the good things to come from the reform is increasing starting teacher salaries from somewhere between $28,000 and $31,000 to $40,000.

Charles Dobbs, director of Graduate Education and professor of history, said he is concerned the right people aren’t politically powerful enough to be making decisions on education.

He said he was concerned that the people who are making these decisions might not have a lot of experience in education.

Another problem that was pointed out in the meeting is that there may not be enough lobbying for education to get education professionals’ concerns across.

An idea of Branstad’s plan is to lengthen student teaching programs to 15 or 16 weeks and to make students work up to 100 hours before starting student teaching.

The group said the plan was good because it would allow students more time in the classroom before moving into the professional world, but how much it would cost students would need to be taken into consideration.

There also was debate on whether or not there should be retention of third graders if they don’t pass a certain level of literacy.