House and Senate bills requiring that schools offer a fully in-person learning option are advancing at the statehouse, with health officials concerned on how that may put school staff at risk of contracting COVID-19. A bill has advanced to the full Senate while a similar proposal passed out of a House subcommittee Monday, in line with Governor Kim Reynolds’ education priorities set out this session. District 84 Representative Joe Mitchell (R) says he supports the bill, though he says that many school districts in southeast Iowa have done a good job at getting kids back in school buildings during the pandemic, “It’s schools like the Des Moines Public School District and Iowa City Public Schools that are the ones unfortunately playing political football, and so that has kind of rubbed some legislators wrong and now public education is kind of getting a bad name because of one or two districts that have decided not to do the right thing.”