Another version of legislation to change funding and oversight for the state’s nine Area Education Agencies has passed in the Iowa House. This time it’s connected to an increase in teacher pay and the annual funding plan for K-12 schools.
Republican leaders in the House say the bill restores most of their priorities on those issues but makes some concessions to the Senate that are designed to push the package through to Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Democrats are upset that House Republicans have now lumped the AEAs, teacher pay and school funding together after passing them separately. They continue to call for a pause on changes to the AEAs until lawmakers study the issue further.
The new version of the House bill (HF 2612) would continue to require school districts to use the AEAs for special education support services such as speech therapy or psychological assessments. As part of that, districts must send through 90% of state funding for special ed services to the AEAs.
Districts would control the remaining 10% of state funding for special ed support. By the budget year starting in 2025, they would also control all of the funding that currently flows directly to the AEAs to provide media and education services such as teacher training.
There’s one more change to that funding. Money that is not sent to the AEAs for media and education services can be redirected to a district’s general fund. Rep. Sean Bagniewski, D-Des Moines, said that change, when combined with the special ed money that stays with districts, effectively siphons funding away from the AEAs.
“A little slips away, then a little more, then a little more. And then when things start to fall apart it gives politicians the argument that the AEAs are failing our students,” Bagniewski said. “This isn’t about choice. This is about retooling our AEA system for failure.”
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said nothing has to change in the way districts work with their AEAs if they like their current arrangements. But, he said, the bill gives some flexibility to districts that do want to make changes.
“Ultimately the school has the say in how they handle this money,” Wheeler said. “This bill gives essentially local control to our schools. They know what their needs are better than anybody, yet I hear on the opposite end that this is somehow going to result in massive losses. Do we trust the schools or do we not trust the schools?”
Raising pay for teachers
The education package passed in the House would increase state funding for K-12 schools by 2.5%, which matches what Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed at the start of the session but is less than what the House passed a month ago at 3%.
House Republicans say the increase is effectively higher when you count the funding in the package to increase teacher pay.
The House plan would increase the minimum teacher salary in Iowa from $33,500 to $50,000 and incorporates Reynolds’ proposal to set a $62,000 minimum for teachers with 12 years of experience.
It includes $14 million to support wage increases for support staff such as paraeducators, although it does not include a $15 per hour minimum wage for school employees that was part of the previous House bill.
That funding is important to Rep. Chad Ingels, R-Randalia. AEAs are not failing students, said Ingels, who has two children with Down syndrome. Ingels said he is willing to back some changes to the AEAs, though, in order to secure additional financial support for paraeducators and others who work with students with disabilities.
“While AEA personnel are extremely valuable, paraeducators are there every day beside my kids and they’re underpaid,” Ingels said in emotional remarks on the House floor. “And to get those critical components that will help teacher recruitment, paraeducator recruitment, we have to address something within the AEA system.”
The bill also added back into the proposal a task force that would study outcomes for students in special education. Democrats said that’s the only step lawmakers should take on the AEAs this year. Establishing a task force while also making changes to funding and oversight means the study will be looking into a system in flux, they said.
“Iowans were very open to a study, a pure study,” said Rep. Molly Buck, D-Ankeny. “But a pure study can’t really be done when the first thing we do is throw a system into chaos and disrupt the entire system.”
The bill passed with 51 votes in favor, sending the issue back to the Senate. Nine Republicans joined Democrats to vote against it.
Waiting for debate
The House bill reached the floor late Thursday afternoon after members waited through the day for the final text of the proposal to be finalized.
Democrats criticized GOP leaders for using what is called a time certain motion to end debate and force a vote on the bill at 6:30 pm, just two-and-a-half hours after the final amendment was filed publicly online.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, acknowledged that Democrats received a version of it earlier in the afternoon but questioned why House Republicans were moving so quickly to bring the bill to a vote.
“If they think their bill that we passed before was good, why are we doing another one?” Konfrst told reporters earlier in the day. “What are we doing? They’re compromising with themselves. House Republicans currently are negotiating among each other and they’re leaving Iowans out of the process.”
After the vote, House Speaker Pat Grassley said the timing and scope of the package is meant to show the House GOP is intent on resolving the education issues that have dominated the legislative session up to this point.
“We wanted to make sure that as we went home this weekend that our schools and Iowans had an idea of where House Republicans stand and where our final position is going to be on these three topics,” Grassley said.
The Senate was part of discussions on combining proposals for the AEAs with teacher pay and school funding, Grassley said, but he stopped short of saying the Senate was prepared to sign off on the latest bill from the House.
“I don’t’ want to make it sound like we reached some sort of consensus amongst ourselves,” Grassley said. “Our expectation is it satisfies everyone at the table to be able to get a package that is going to move forward and, our hope would be, make it to the governor’s desk.”
In a brief statement, Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver said Republicans in his chamber will discuss the latest version of the bill next week and that he is “looking forward to a resolution on these issues.”
