If you mandate it, why not fund it?

As I was doing my morning reading last week, I did a quick check of my Facebook page to discover a post by a friend and member of a local school board. It linked to a KMA story about the Iowa Senate passing a school radon bill. My friend’s comment noted without the funding, the bill wasn’t much help to schools.

In other words, it’s just another “unfunded mandate.”

From my years tracking state education legislation, I can say this follows the usual pattern of picking issues and pushing through one-size-fits-all fixes. These fixes often turn into political theater, giving legislators issues on which to run their next campaign. But they create headaches for local level officials charged with implementation because they are passed without the funding that would make them work.

In this case, without additional funding to help schools pay for installation of any needed radon mitigation system, requiring it becomes a burden more likely to erode a district’s education program by taking money away from kids’ learning or other district needs. Currently, that’s how the legislation reads.

And such legislation distracts from the real responsibility of legislators to tax and spend for the common good. Their job, first and foremost, is to provide the means (money) for public services, not the details of their operation.

As one southwest Iowa legislator noted when I made a visit to the Capitol in February, from the beginning of his legislative career, he specialized, serving on agricultural and human service committees. Too many issues come before the legislature for him to be an expert in all, he said.

Which leads me to ask why legislators are passing legislation at this level of detail, instead of appropriating adequate education funds to allow local officials to do the job of providing safe schools? Ironically, this same legislator registered a similar complaint about working with the federal government on water quality standards in Iowa.

But getting back to radon, it is very definitely a public health issue, and we want to protect our children. If it’s a priority, then it’s the legislature’s job to appropriate the funds to pay for this public safety law. However, without the funding, it’s simply marketing for the next election.

If legislators are serious about public needs, they need to be willing to fund them. That’s why Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to tax. And our state constitution states: “Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people.” No government can perform these duties without funds.

Likewise, schools can’t fix a radon problem without funds.

So if state legislators really want to protect our schools from radon, they need to provide the funds for it. Either attach appropriations to the radon bill or increase allowable growth to cover it instead of asking schools to cut already tight budgets or local property taxpayers to pick up the bill.

Do you know your home’s radon level?

As I’ve written, my family and I completed a major home renovation this fall. Specifically, we had our farm house, where I grew up, lifted and the old, brick, tile foundation and dirt floor basement replaced with a new-poured concrete foundation and basement. We also addressed a number of other issues like the roof and heating and cooling systems.

But the new foundation was the main event. It wasn’t just the cracks, bowing and moisture. Ever since we moved back into the house, we’ve had questions from some important elders in our life about the radon levels in the house. You see, both my parents developed cancer – pancreatic and colon – after living in that home for nearly 30 years. And radon is a known carcinogen, although it is usually linked to lung cancer.

Never heard of it? Well, it’s a naturally occurring element released into the soil, and it’s related to radium and uranium. Although it may be released anywhere, Iowa has high occurrences of it. So, all buildings should be tested. I had long suspected a problem, given the anxiety of my dad’s brother Bud and Dad’s friend Pastor Bob, not to mention the cancer history in my corner of Montgomery County. So as we made plans to renovate, I picked up a do-it-yourself test kit at the hardware store.

After leaving the test packet in the old basement the allotted amount of time, I sent it to the laboratory in the envelope provided, with instructions to e-mail the test results. About three days later, I received my e-mail. At 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L), the lab tells you to FIX YOUR HOME (their emphasis). Our results were 12 pCi/L. Consequently, I e-mailed my architect and contractor the results and asked them to include a radon mitigation system in our plans. Seeing those numbers in black and white got us all moving.

And I thought about them a lot as I waited during that late June/early July heat wave for the work to begin. My family had gone on to stay with relatives in Illinois, and I was left alone with two of our cats to finish the plans. Every day I sat in that closed house with the air conditioning running made me wonder about my exposure. It was a relief to sleep at night upstairs with open windows, even if it wasn’t air conditioned.

I felt better when we moved back in over a solid foundation and basement floors, but I wasn’t completely at ease until after the radon mitigation system was installed. I can hear it now, running just outside the corner of the house where my computer sits.

It’s my favorite thing to show off when we tour the basement, even when I get jaw-dropping reactions to the new space like those of my nephews, who visited during Thanksgiving. And it’s a good thing I do include it on the tour, because too many people are unaware of this silent danger.

Most states now require radon testing for real estate transactions. But if your home hasn’t been tested, you should do it now. And I recommend you learn more about radon; the Environmental Protection Agency’s site is a great place to start: http://www.epa.gov/radon/index.html.

Trust me, you’ll sleep easier.