March 13, 2014
School Funding Advocacy Needed
Advocacy
Plan: Lobby from home day, Thursday,
March 13 (Friday and through the weekend):
Set the state cost per pupil for FY 2016 before this legislature
adjourns.
The Education Coalition (UEN, IASB, AEAs of Iowa, SAI and ISEA) is
planning a “lobby from home” day next week to generate many phone and email
contacts before people head off to Spring Break and before the legislature
starts to wind down. Send email and make
phone calls striving for three contacts per advocate (more if your district is
represented by several legislators). Use
a pyramid model where each advocate encourages another to also contact their
legislators and the governor. Turn your grassroots and parent groups loose. Use the RSAI call to action, Mar. 13, which
includes a sample letter from parent to legislator to get started. School Funding Decision Needed Now
(w/parent letter) found on the RSAI legislative web page
Contact information:
Call or email Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds and your legislators
and leave a message: schools need
sufficient school funding, at least 6% per pupil for the 2015-16 school year,
determined this session.
·
Office of the Governor: State Capitol | 1007
East Grand Ave. | Des Moines, Iowa 50319, Phone: 515.281.5211 | Contact Us
(https://governor.iowa.gov/contact/)
·
To reach members of the Iowa House and Senate:.
o
Email your legislators. The correct email address
configuration is: firstname.lastname@legis.iowa.gov and can be verified at the
above link.
o
Call the Switchboard. Leave a message for your
representative at 515.281.3221 or for your senator at 515.281.3371
·
Write a letter to your local newspaper explaining
the information above in this call to action or sharing details from one of the
education coalition funding facts of the week.
·
Appropriations Progress: none
to report following last week’s release of budget targets. The two Education Appropriations Subcommittee
meetings scheduled for this week were cancelled. Starting points for discussion on various
line items in the education budget are under development in both chambers. Perhaps a bill will be introduced next week.
Funnel Deadline: March 14
(Friday this week) is the next official funnel deadline by which bills must be
approved by committee in the other chamber rather than their chamber of origin
in order to move forward (Senate files approved by House Committees and House
files approved by Senate Committees.)
Appropriations, ways and means (tax policy) and leadership bills are
exempt from the funnel deadlines.
Remember that any dead bill may show up as an amendment in another bill
to which it is topical (germane), as part of an appropriations bill or if the
body agrees, by suspension of the rules.
No further House or Senate Education Committee meetings are posted this
week, so we don’t anticipate additional bills will move before Friday’s
deadline. The following bills received
floor consideration this week:
Senate Committee Action
•
HF
2194 Procedure change for setting cost per pupil: Senate Education Committee recommended
amendment S-5059
to replace the language in this bill (known as a strike-after amendment since
all words in the bill after the enactment clause are replaced with the words in
the amendment). The amendment sets a 6%
increase in the state cost per pupil for the 2015-16 school year. This action keeps
the conversation alive since previous Senate bills to set 6% did not get out of
the House Education Committee, thus did not survive the funnel. The Committee heard testimony from
Superintendents Stan Rheingans (Dubuque), Greg Darling (Humboldt and Twin
Rivers) and Tim Taylor with SBO Karen Shimp (Ames), explaining the consequences
to schools of delaying the decision until next session. See the March 13 Education Funding Call to
Action for talking points to contact your legislators. This bill moves to the Senate Calendar with
amendment recommended.
•
HF 2388 defines a process for an AEA liaison for foster care, if
one exists at the AEA, to help navigate the transition for students in foster
care from one district to another. There is neither a mandate for AEAs to hire
this position nor funding to pay for it if they did. This bill moves to the Senate Calendar.
•
HF 2389
requires the BOEE
to include in educators ethics and code of conduct a prohibition of sexual or
romantic relationship between a licensed staff member and a student they taught
or supervised (ie., coached) for at least 90 days after the student graduates
or leaves the school.
•
SF
2318 Anti-Bullying/Safe Schools
Bill was amended by S-5060 and approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
amendment places professional development requirements in the district or
attendance center plan rather than in the teacher’s individual PD plan,, made
several references to outcomes based training in addition to the research-based
phrase in the original bill, and made several other mostly technical
changes. The bill moves to the Senate
Appropriations Calendar (immune from funnel dates.)
House Committee Action
SF 2319 Defining
Dyslexia was approved by the House Education Committee on March 12. The bill,
as amended by amendment H-8115 requires the
Reading Research Center to work with the DE and AEAs to provide no cost
professional development to early elementary teachers to improve skills of all
students in reading, conditional on an appropriation in the budget. The bill requires districts provide
assistance to students to include but not be limited to strategies that
formally address dyslexia, when appropriate and defines dyslexia as a specific
and significant impairment in the development of reading, including but not
limited to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension,
that is not solely accounted for by intellectual disability, sensory disability
or impairment, or lack of appropriate instruction. The bill moves to the House
floor with recommended amendment.
SF 366 Radon Testing and Mitigation: was amended by H-8114 and approved by the House Local Government Committee. The
amendment removes requirements for school districts to test or mitigate and
instead requires the DE to send information to public and nonpublic
schools about dangers of radon, requires districts and nonpublic schools to
report to the DE by year end activities regarding mitigation and testing.
The DE is required report to the General Assembly next year on status of
schools actions reported.
House Floor Action
HF 2439 Student Data and References to Iowa Common Core. This bill changes Iowa Code references in
current law to the Iowa Common Core to remove the word “common” , replaced with
Iowa Core Content Standards. The bill allows a district to administer a different
assessment to students but the assessment is prohibited from replacing the
existing Iowa assessments. The bill
also states legislative intent: “The
Iowa core content standards shall not dictate curriculum or prescribe a
particular method of instruction to school districts and accredited nonpublic
schools. . . .It is the intent of the general assembly that selection and
implementation of curriculum, textbooks, educational materials, and
instructional methods remain with school districts and accredited nonpublic
schools and not with the state or federal government.” The bill requires the DE to set up a process
to solicit public comment, to maintain a website through which the public can
access the core content standards and requires regular review of public input
by the state board of education. The bill also prohibits the DE or State Board
of Education from changing the Iowa Core Content Standards without first
submitting an annual report to the legislature, and creates a new Code section
regarding student data policies, procedures and plans. The bill moves to the Senate Education
Committee, but without that committee meeting again, will die due to the funnel
deadline.
School Funding: Background on prior action and bill numbers: the
Senate approved and sent to the House, the following bills still assigned to
the House Education Committee. There has been no indication that the House will
take up this conversation this year.
•
SF
2079: Sets 6% increase to
the state cost per pupil (formerly known as allowable growth) for FY 2016,
passed on partisan vote all Democrats in favor and all Republicans
opposed.
•
SF
2077: Sets 6% growth for
categorical supplements (PD, TSS and early intervention/class size) for FY
2016, passed on partisan vote all Democrats in favor and all Republicans
opposed.
•
SF
2078: Property Tax Replacement Payments: makes permanent the state’s replacement of
the property tax impact of allowable growth/state supplemental assistance,
passed unanimously (49-0).
Timing:
House bill HF
2194, approved 53-43 on Feb. 14 in the Iowa House, changes when the state
cost per pupil would be set
•
Currently, Iowa Code 257.8 requires state cost
per pupil and categorical fund percent increases to be set within 30 days of
the governor’s budget for the out year (Feb. 13, 2014 is deadline to set July
1, 2015 rate)
•
In odd numbered years, state cost per pupil for
the upcoming July 1 and the out year are both set. The legislature wouldn’t act in the even
numbered year
•
Democrats in the floor debate quoted school
superintendents responding to a survey in which 98% said the funding decision
should not be delayed to next Session.
They talked about the timelines required to set a quick budget, the difficulty
with scenario planning, and suggested the legislature should follow the law.
Education Coalition Joint
Advocacy: Thanks to ISEA, IASB, SAI, UEN and Iowa AEAs for
this collaborative effort!
Funding fact of the week: the coalition is preparing a weekly
funding fact to generate local conversations and fuel the enthusiasm for
setting the state percent of growth during the 2014 Session. The first issue
detailed Iowa’s 37th in the nation ranking in total per pupil
expenditures, now $1,514 below the national average. Prior issues are linked on the UEN legislative page, here’s the
link to this week’s publication on ending balances and revenues:
Sign
up to receive the Education Funding fact of the week here: http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=e0acb6236d9a5dbd136a38ef4&id=815d3aa83c
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