District 79 Representative Dustin Hite will oversee one of the state’s most critical committees in his second term in the Iowa Statehouse.

Hite is now chair of the House Education Committee, which is one of the largest in terms of size of membership and financially, as K-12 education and regents’ universities make up the majority of the state budget.

However, Hite says most of the work in the committee will deal with policy, and there is a lot to address after the way schools have been transformed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Some of the things that we’re going to look at are the ways we can address the learning gap that’s been created by COVID-19 — there are students that haven’t been in class or in class a lot since last March, and that’s certainly going to have an effect on their learning ability,” he says. Additionally, he expects there to be a review of open enrollment policies and other parental choice policies after many students and families were left with little options when their respective districts went online-only.

Stay tuned to 92.1 KRLS for coverage of the 2021 Legislative Session, which begins on Monday, January 12th.