Prior to digging into the good stuff, I wanted to let you know that my legislative update will no longer be included in the School Leader Update. Once session begins, the pace at the Capitol can be lightning fast. In lieu of a monthly update, I will be sending more frequent legislative updates similar to this one, which will hopefully keep you better informed and up-to-date on all the education action!

So the gavels have been dusted off and the first session of the 87th General Assembly has begun! The first day of session was January 9, with the House and Senate gaveling in at the same time. In both chambers, there are many new members, 23 to be exact. Click here for the list. The current make-up of the House consists of 59 Republican and 41 Democrat legislators and in the Education Committee there are 14 Republican and nine Democrat legislators. In the Senate, there are 29 Republican, 20 Democrat legislators and one Independent and the Education Committee is comprised of nine Republican and six Democrat legislators.

There are new Chair and Ranking members in both the House and Senate Education Committees. For the Legislative Committee page, click here and you will see both the House and Senate Education Committees are listed. If you click on the Education Committee, it provides the names of the legislators, click on a legislator's name and additional information regarding that legislator is provided. In the Senate Education Committee, Amy Sinclair is Chair, Jeff Edler, Vice-Chair and Herman Quirmbach, Ranking member. In the House Education Committee, Walt Rogers is Chair, Greg Forristall, Vice-Chair and Sharon Steckman, Ranking member. Senator Edler and Representative Rogers are new to the Education Committees.

At the beginning of session, Governor Branstad delivered his Condition of the State address and released his fiscal year (FY) 2018 and FY 2019 proposed budgets. His recommendations included an increase of $73 million for K-12 education for FY 2018 and an additional $61 million for FY 2019, which equates to roughly 2 percent growth each year. He also encouraged the General Assembly to make decisions early and meet the legal requirements of setting supplemental state aid for FY 2018 and FY 2019 in the first 30 days of session. The Governor's budget also included an appropriation reduction for FY 2017 of $110 million. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees acted by passing HF 118 and SF 130, both on a party line vote. The bills include $88.2 million cuts, a transfer of $25 million from other funds, and the return of $4.5 million in unused property tax credits.

SF 130 was debated on the Senate floor and passed on a 28-19 vote. It was debated on the House floor and passed on a party line vote of 57-38. It is now on its way to the Governor. As noted in the bill, the Department received an appropriation reduction of $4.5 million. Also in the bill, there is an additional reduction amount of $11.5 million listed under “department operational reductions," which state agencies will need to identify and implement additional reductions. The bill states that these reductions shall be applied by the Department of Management in consultation with each department.

The Republicans approved two school funding intent bills in committee. Those bills are  HF 136 and SF 166. The bills establish a state percent of growth and categorical growth of 1.11 percent. They also agreed to set both within 30 days from the submission of the Governor's budget for the upcoming school year. The House Republicans cited that there is too much uncertainty to set the rate for schools a year and a half in advance. By shortening the period of time between setting the rate and the start of the school year, more certainty will be provided to schools. House Democrats said the 1.11 percent is inadequate and that they are disappointed that the amount came in below the Governor's recommendation of 2 percent.

Back to the beginning of session…there was a subcommittee held on SSB 1001. The bill leaves Iowa Assessments (or whatever successor assessment they develop) in place permanently and would strike the rules the State Board of Education adopted that put the Smarter Balanced Assessment in place. There has been no action on the bill since the subcommittee.

The Department introduced two bills which have been pre-filed. Please remember these bills are pre-filed and have yet to be assigned to a subcommittee and may change as they progress through the legislative process.

Our bills are as follows:

Science Assessment – This bill originated from the recommendations of the Iowa Assessment Task Force who recommended that Iowa only administer science assessments to grades 5, 8, and 10. This matches Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements, which states that science assessments are required in 3 grade spans, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. We believe this should have a positive fiscal impact for school districts as there will be a reduction in the number of assessments given statewide. For further details, click here.

Department of Education Technical Clarifications – This bill is designed to clean up sections of Iowa Code. We anticipate the items outlined should pass without issue. For further details, click here.

The Department has one other bill, High School Equivalency Diploma Options, which as the title reflects, offers alternate methods of obtaining a high school equivalency diploma. This bill has not yet been placed in the pre-filed bills; however, I will provide you with further information and the link once it becomes available.

There are several education related bills you may find interesting. You can track and monitor those bills utilizing the Department’s bill tracking site, which is available here.

For your convenience, I have included the link to The Iowa Legislature website here. There are tabs at the top where you can choose the area you are interested in such as legislators, legislation or committees. I have also included the Iowa 87th General Assembly Calendar here which shows March 3 as the end of the first funnel week and March 31 as the end of the second funnel week. During the first funnel week, bills have to be voted out of a House or Senate Committee by this date in order to stay alive and remain eligible for debate. This does not apply to bills that spend money (Appropriations bills). By the second funnel deadline, bills have to be voted out of one chamber and out of committee in the opposite chamber or they are no longer eligible for debate. Once again, this does not include Appropriations bills.

Time is flying and week four has arrived. There has been a great deal of attention focused on getting a de-appropriation bill finalized. Since that process is nearing the end, it is likely we will be seeing more movement on policy bills. So buckle up, there is sure to be more action in the coming weeks!