March 3, 2014
Floor Work Continues after the First Funnel
Advocacy
Plan: Lobby from home day next Thursday,
March 13: Set the state cost per pupil
for FY 2016 before the legislature adjourns this Session.
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 UEN call to action, Feb. 14, which
includes a sample letter from parent to legislator to get started. School Funding Decision Needed Now
(w/parent letter) http://www.uen-ia.org/attachments/call%20to%20action/Call%20to%20Action%20School%20Funding%20template%20along%20with%20parent%20letter.pdf
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.
·
Joint Budget
Targets: Unprecedented to have joint
targets with Republicans in charge of the House and Democrats in charge of the
Senate, indicating serious work toward April adjournment. Joint budget targets were released yesterday.
House and Senate leaders agree on FY 2015 general fund budget of $6.92 billion,
$29 million below the Governor’s budget recommendation and $430 million more
than FY 2014. These targets have nothing
to do with 6% cost per pupil increase in FY 2016. These targets do include the 4% cost per
pupil increase set last year for FY 2015.
The Education Appropriations Subcommittee met briefly this morning to
share the target, then went to caucus.
They anticipate a bill with line item appropriations no sooner than the
week of March 17. The Education budget
includes several line items, among them DE administration, Iowa Core, community
colleges, early reading implementation, and many others, but the state
aid/supplemental state assistance is appropriated in the Unassigned Standings
appropriations bill.
|
FY 2014 Estimated Spending
|
Governor’s FY 2015 Recommendation
|
Joint Legislative Targets FY 2015
|
|
|
Education
|
$716.42 million
|
$716.42 million
|
$716.42 million
|
|
Unassigned Standings
|
$2.991 billion
|
$3.283 billion
|
$3.259 billion
|
|
Total State
General Fund
|
$6.492
billion
|
$7.001
billion
|
$6.972
billion
|
Funnel Deadline: March 14 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. The following bills received
floor consideration this week:
Senate Action
•
SF
2129: authorizing the establishment of a philanthropy account within
an agency fund established by a school corporation. (Formerly SF 2006.) Passed ayes 35, nays 13. To House Education
Committee.
•
SF
2285: establishing an Iowa
healthiest children initiative in the DPH, with recommendations due Dec. 15,
2014. (Formerly SF 2144.) Passed ayes
48, nays 0.
•
SF
2286: Fine arts
standards task force would recommend inclusion of fine arts standards in
academic standards, report due Jan. 2015, Passed, 42-7.
•
SF
2262: Radon testing in public schools, must test by June 30, 2016 and
at least every 10 years after and following construction, repairs, no
requirement (yet) to mitigate. Passed, 35-14.
The fiscal
note written about this bill states: Based on information from the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the cost of testing schools by radon professionals may
range up to $1,500 for an entire building. The DE reports that in some cases, a
radon test kit may be implemented by a licensed professional at a cost of $30
per room. Cost of radon mitigation will vary, and may range between $5,000 and
$15,000 (although not mandated by the bill).
Additionally, in some cases, ventilation adjustments can lead to radon
reduction.
House Action
•
HF
2388 Foster Care Education: Encourages the AEA to hire a foster care
liaison to assist schools with transfer of foster care children (dealing with
transfer of credits, transition planning, coordinating information and other
services.) Requires schools to work with
the liaison if the AEA has one. Amended and passed 99:0. Goes to the Senate Education Committee.
•
HF
2389 Teacher Sexual
Misconduct: Requires BOEE to adopt rules that allow BOEE to suspend or
revoke the license or otherwise discipline a teacher who solicits or engages in
sex with a person who was their student within the prior 90 days. Goes to the Senate Education Committee.
•
SF
2056: WGS incentives: extends WGS/reorganization incentives to 2019,
for up to three years for WGS and 3 years following a reorg. Fiscal impact is
estimated at $1.6 million. Approved 49:0. Goes to the Senate Education
Committee.
•
SF
2230: DE Code Corrections
passed 98:0 (amended bill to match the senate version, so goes back to Senate,
then to the governor.) The bill
specifies data reporting requirements for the DE related to core academic
indicators, changes references to modified allowable growth to correspond with
new concept of state supplemental aid to schools, now referring to the term as
“modified supplemental amount” for
school districts and AEAs, replaces a reference to a now nonexistent organization (north central association of colleges and
schools) with a reference to a higher learning commission, allows for a
reorganization petition to include a vote on a revenue purpose statement for
sales tax revenue to be voted on at the reorganization election, reinstates the
state board of education’s authority to adopt rules to administer teacher
mentoring and induction, requires proceeds from sales of funds be deposited
into the fund from which the property was originally purchased and provides for
sale or disposition of real property to be deposited into the PPEL if the
original fund of purchase is unknown and proceeds from sale of any property
other than real property into the general fund.
Also requires that proceeds from sale of student constructed-structures
reimburse the program but if the board discontinues the program, funds would go
to the general fund.
School Funding:
No change from last week’s report: the Senate approved and sent to the House,
the following bills still assigned to the House Education Committee with
Subcommittee members Jorgensen, Forristall, and Steckman. Subcommittee meetings
have not been scheduled and there has been no indication that the House will
take up this conversation this year. Look to the UEN CALL TO ACTION Feb. 14,
2014 to
help school leaders and parents connect with House members and the governor to
prioritize school funding and move these bills. A template for a letter from
parents or citizens is included with the call to action.
•
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, Iowa AEAs and UEN for working in 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, or you can access via the links and titles here:
03/03/2014 - It's All About the Timing
03/03/2014 - It's All About the Timing
·
Sign up to received the Education Funding fact
of the week here: http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=e0acb6236d9a5dbd136a38ef4&id=815d3aa83c
Cedar Rapids
Gazette editorial
on why the legislature should follow the law and set school funding for the FY
2016 fiscal year in the 2014 session.
It’s a great editorial – read it, share it, send it to your legislators
and others. http://thegazette.com/2014/02/06/lawmakers-should-follow-laws/
The editorial explains why education
funding should be set before the rest of the budget:
“The not quite 20-year-old state law directs the Legislature to set
state per-pupil funding two years in advance, and within 30 days of receiving a
governor’s budget. The goals are pretty simple. Make school funding a top
priority, give school districts ample time to plan ahead and make it less
likely that critical school bucks will get tangled up in all the budgetary
horse-trading that happens late in a session.”
They also explain what happens
when it’s not set timely: “This is not the path to the world class
schools the governor says we should have. Districts are far less likely to try
transformative initiatives and launch innovative programs if their budgetary
visibility is reduced to just a few months. Uncertainty encourages districts to
hunker down and cling to the status quo.”
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