Iowa House sends back to the Senate a newly amended AEA bill as talks continue

By Robin Opsahl, Iowa Capital Dispatch

As Republican lawmakers worked toward an agreement on changes to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies, the House on Thursday sent back to the Senate an amended bill that incorporates changes to the agencies, teacher pay and state aid.

The newly amended House File 2612 passed 51-43 Thursday following discussions between House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and Gov. Kim Reynolds. Reynolds originally laid out changes to the AEAs, which provide special education and other services to Iowa schools, at the beginning of the 2024 legislative session. Her plan would allow school districts to contract with private companies or hire employees to do the work now performed by AEAs.

The governor’s bill was voted down by a House subcommittee and was amended significantly by the Senate. But in the past few months, the House and Senate advanced separate proposals on how to change the AEAs. Last week, the Senate amended the House’s scaled-back AEA bill with their own provisions and sent it back to the House for consideration.

The debate Thursday was on the House’s new amendment, which makes some concessions to the Senate’s priorities while adding back House-approved elements rejected by the Senate.

Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said Thursday the bill now contains many major “wins” for House Republicans’ priorities on AEAs and the state’s K-12 educational system. He also highlighted his family’s personal experience with AEA services and those of other lawmakers like Rep. Chad Ingels, R-Randalia, who supported the bill.

“There is absolutely nothing in here that hurts special education,” Wheeler said. “You have heard from two legislators that have been massive advocates on this issue that stood up and said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to support this.’ And if we thought that it did what all of the fearmongering (says it) is doing out there, we would never support it.”

Here’s how the House and Senate bills compare

The amended version incorporates several elements of both the House and Senate versions of the bills. The legislation would make no changes to special education funding for Iowa K-12 schools in the first year but in the second year, the money would flow first to the school districts, which would be required to send 90% of it to the AEAs while having the option of keeping the remaining 10%.

This language, similar to House’s original proposal, is very different from the Senate’s amendment. That version proposed sending 90% of special education funds to school districts to use at their discretion with 10% going to the AEAs beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.

The House and Senate proposals were similar in dealing with media and general education services: The AEAs would directly receive 40% of the funding, and school districts 60%, in year one, and all of the money would be routed to school districts in year two.

The newly amended bill also reintroduces a measure from the House to create a task force to study AEAs and make recommendations on potential changes to the system before next year’s legislative session.

Democrats: Iowans want a study before other changes

Democrats criticized the bill for making changes to the AEAs and called for their Republican colleagues to listen to Iowans who are requesting they only move forward with a task force. During floor debate, multiple Democrats read emails and letters from constituents who spoke about the positive impact that the AEAs have had on families and schools.

Members of the minority party repeatedly claimed that House Republicans were rushing to push through the amended bill, not allowing Democrats or their own constituents to assess and evaluate the proposal. The amendment was released online less than an hour before debate began, and Republicans set a 6:30 p.m. cutoff for debate.

Rep. Sean Bagniewski, D-Des Moines, read a letter from an Iowan who urged lawmakers to listen to the thousands of individuals supporting of Iowa’s current AEA system. The writer said while the Guidehouse consulting firm report found that Iowa’s special education students score lower than the national average despite higher per-pupil spending, that does not reflect the progress parents see “watching our children overcome obstacles that our doctors told us they would likely never overcome.”

While some Republicans argued the changes proposed would help special education in the state by giving more spending power directly to local school districts, Bagniewski said the legislation would destabilize the current AEA system and lead to worse outcomes for special education students.

“This isn’t about choice, this is about retooling our AEA system for failure,” he said. “Thousands of Iowans have told us this is what is going to happen. So when AEA staff quit ,when students lose their services, when our AEAs descend into chaos, when the school districts find out that they can’t afford these services on their own, when families feel the need to move away because they can’t find services for their kids — you can’t say that you weren’t warned.”

House proposes higher teacher pay, lower per-pupil increase

While House lawmakers had earlier separated a teacher-pay proposal from AEA legislation – and passed it as a separate measure – House Republicans added it back to the bill in Thursday’s amendment. The bill now proposes raising minimum teacher starting salaries to $47,500 in year one and $50,000 in year two – as well as a year one $60,000 minimum for teachers with 12 years of experience and $62,000 in the second year. These figures exceed the Senate’s proposed $46,251 starting salary minimum.

The bill also appropriates $14 million to help raise pay for education support professionals, such as paraeducators, but removes the $15 minimum hourly wage requirement. Wheeler explained that the $14 million recommendation came from data from the Iowa State Education Association, but that it was still unclear as to whether the appropriation would fully cover implementation of a $15 minimum hourly wage.

House lawmakers had passed a 3% state supplemental aid rate for Iowa schools separately in late February. The Senate has not taken up an SSA proposal, despite the self-imposed deadline to pass school aid within 30 days of the governor releasing her budget. The House’s AEA bill amendment would provide a 2.5% increase to per-pupil state aid for the upcoming school year — the rate recommended in Reynolds’ budget proposal.

Ingels said that as the parent of two children with disabilities, he believes the AEAs and AEA workers are not failing Iowa special education students — but that the bill will not take away money from the AEA system or impact services the agencies provide to Iowa families and schools.

Ingels said that while he was initially opposed to legislation on the AEAs, he believed that the measure is necessary to ensure increased teacher pay — and increase pay for paraeducators, who are often the employees working directly with students with disabilities in school each day. The amended bill will improve special education and all K-12 education in Iowa, he said, and will not hurt AEAs’ ability to provide support and services across the state.

“Compromise is what we do in this place,” Ingels said. “And to get those critical components that will help teacher recruitment, paraeducator recruitment, we have to address something within the AEA system. It’s not going to be their delivery, it’s going to be oversight, maybe some administration things, but it’s going to make the whole system better.”

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst took issue with House Republicans not sticking to their goals on issues such as SSA and keeping all special education funding going to AEAs.

“I have no doubt that the people who have worked so hard on this legislation, do so with the right intent,” Konfrst said. “I know you don’t want to take away services from special ed kids, I believe that in my core. I know you’re looking out for special ed kids. I do. … I just think that politics got in the way here and that you’re having to compromise on something that you didn’t want to compromise on. And I don’t think that’s fair to you, who worked so hard on this, or to the kids.”

Wheeler said that House Republicans “feel strongly about our language” on issues like AEAs and teacher pay, and that House GOP goals were in the amended bill.

“Yes, I believe you can make an argument this is going to improve outcomes for students with disabilities,” Wheeler said. “Yes, I believe this is local control. Yes, I believe this provides certainty for the AEAs, and yes, I believe it provides certainty for families that have students with disabilities.”

Future of bill is unclear

Though the amendment came following discussions with the Senate, it’s unclear whether the bill will pass — or be amended again — by Senate Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver released a statement Thursday saying that Senate Republicans will discuss the new version of the bill next week, and that he is “looking forward to a resolution on these issues.”

Reynolds also released a statement following the bill’s passage, thanking House leadership and lawmakers who “remained committed to the intent of this bill and to working together to reach a compromise that honors it.”

“Today’s vote by the House paves a path forward to further strengthen Iowa’s education system in meaningful ways,” Reynolds said in a written statement. “Every student deserves a quality education that helps them reach their potential. By reforming the AEA system, empowering school districts, and improving oversight and transparency, we are committing to better outcomes and brighter futures for Iowa’s students with disabilities. They deserve nothing less.”

House Speaker Pat Grassley told reporters that a consensus has not been reached, but that he believes the amended legislation passed Thursday “satisfies everyone at the table” and provides a vehicle to move forward on important issues such as AEA revisions, teacher pay and SSA.

“We felt by combining these three, that gave us the best assurances to get that to the governor’s desk as quickly as possible,” Grassley said.

— Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.