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Capitol Update - January 16, 2025

Capitol Update Reports
 / 16 January 2025 / 0 Comments / jen@iowaschool…

UEN Legislative Update
January 16, 2025

(Download this week's printable UEN Legislative Update & Bill Tracker)

 

This UEN Weekly Report from the 2025 Legislative Session includes:

  • Governor’s Condition of the State/Budget Recommendations
  • Governor’s Policy Recommendations
  • A Note About Property Taxes
  • Advocacy Actions for the Week
  • Advocacy Resources
  • Bill Tracker Detailing Actions on Committees, Subcommittees & New Bills for the Week

 

Governor’s Condition of State/Budget Recommendations:

Background: FY 2025 Information: Last year’s state appropriations were well below the 99% expenditure limitation, with LSA’s State Budget Preview, Dec. 19, 2024, estimating an FY 2025 ending balance (surplus) of $2.2 Billion and Taxpayer Relief Fund Balance of $3.9 Billion.

Condition of the State Speech: In case you missed it, Governor Kim Reynolds delivered the 2025 Condition of the State Address on Jan. 14, 2025, and the Governor's prepared remarks for delivery, or you can learn more about Governor Reynolds' priorities for the 2025 legislative session.

The LSA’s Analysis of the Governor’s Budget Recommendation shows the relative share of education in this pie chart (chart 1), which includes school aid and ESAs together at 44.3% of the state general fund budget recommendation and separates high education into its own category. The ESA recommended appropriation is $314.6 million, or 3% of total FY 2026 General Fund Budget.

By contrast, the DOM analysis pie chart (chart 2) from the Vision for Iowa State Budget, FY 2026 document, shows all education together at 57%.

 

Education Appropriations: The Governor recommends a 2.0% increase in State Supplemental Assistance, SSA, which sets the state cost per pupil at $7,983, which is an increase of $153 per pupil. That per pupil cost becomes the basis for the application of weightings, such as special education and English Learner. The 2% SSA rate is typically applied to per pupil categorical costs as well, TLC, PD, EICS, and Transportation. This year in particular, many districts will need more than a 2% increase in their district’s per pupil Teacher Salary Supplement (TSS) to be able to pay for the additional increase in mandated minimum teacher pay for beginning teachers at $50,000 and teachers with 12 or more years of experience at $62,000. The LSA description of the recommendation states that it includes the AEA reduction of $32.5 million and the PTRP payment, which offsets what would otherwise be property tax increases associated with the higher state cost per pupil. Reminder: this is just the start. There are no proposals yet from the House or Senate, which have to get the ball rolling legislatively through the subcommittee and committee process. Stay tuned.

The Governor’s recommendation also includes the following;

  • Educational Savings Accounts: an appropriation of $314.6 million for ESAs in FY 2026. This is an increase of $96.6 million (44.3%) (for 2% SSA + growth in number of ESAs).
  • Charter Schools: an appropriation of $19.7 million for Charter Schools in FY 2026. This is an increase of $14.5 million (278.29%) (for 2% SSA + growth in number of charter school pupils).
  • Education Support Personnel: continues appropriation of $14 million for hourly staff pay.
  • Transportation Equity Fund: 2% increase ($621,971)

 

Governor’s Policy Recommendations:

  • Grants for PK/childcare partnerships, funded in part by some repurposing of Shared Visions Grants, with higher standards for preschools.
  • Parent Choice for PK (plans to use School Tuition Organization tax credits for providers who apply, but they must meet SVPP Standards)
  • Math PD and support (still continuing to support literacy)
  • Cell Phone Policy – set floor as board policy for no cell phone use by students during instructional time.
  • IPERS: hire back retiring teachers as a beginning teacher salary level ($50K minimum)
  • Civic: High School students must pass immigration and naturalization test for citizenship in order to graduate.
  • Reinstate “Teach Iowa” job postings/hiring support website
  • Create a risk pool to pay for out-of-state student placements
  • Create a DOGE task force to find efficiencies and cost savings for state and local governments.

 

A Note about Property Taxes:

There has been consistent mention of lowering property taxes as a priority for this session, likely a bipartisan effort if history repeats. There are no proposals introduced yet, and the Governor has not mentioned specific policies on property taxes. However, this chart was in the DOM’s Vision for Iowa budget document, page 13. ISFIS calculated the increase in school property taxes collected since 2015 as $878.8 million, or 41.4%. It is important to remind legislators that low SSA forces school districts to turn to property taxes to fund special education deficits and budget guarantee.

 

Advocacy Actions This Week:

Adequate School Funding: Contact legislators regarding SSA. The Governor’s recommendation of 2.0% falls short of inflation. The teacher salary investment last year was a really good start, but SSA has to keep pace or our staff and programs for students will be compromised. See the UEN Issue Brief for additional information. The deadline for deciding SSA is Feb. 13, so the advocacy window is tightening. No bills sponsored by Republicans have yet been introduced to set the SSA rate. Additional Supports:

  • Download the UEN 2025 Adequate School Funding Issue Brief, providing education funding history, comparing total Iowa education expenditures per pupil, which most recently ranked our state as 35th in the nation, now spending more than $2,000 per student LESS than the national average, and including some talking points to help you advocate with your legislators. UEN’s Legislative Priority supports an SSA rate that at least matches the inflation rate schools are experiencing.
  • ISFIS New Authority Calculator allows users to set the SSA rate and calculate the impact for all districts for FY 2026 on your regular program (not including special education or other supplemental weightings or categoricals). Enter the SSA percentage increase and your Budget Enrollment and you can compare to the new money you’d receive if the SSA rate matched inflation (either 2.9% for CPI and 3.2% for Core Inflation) compared to the Governor’s Recommendation of 2.0%.

Quality Preschool and Other UEN Priorities: in every communication, find a way to mention Quality Preschool and Teacher and other Staff Shortages. Find Issue Briefs and other resources on the UEN Website to find talking points or as resources to share when you meet with policymakers.

Connecting with Legislators: To call and leave a message at the Statehouse during the legislative session, the House switchboard operator number is 515.281.3221 and the Senate switchboard operator number is 515.281.3371. You can ask if they are available or leave a message for them to call you back. You can also ask them what’s the best way to contact them during session. They may prefer email or text message or phone call based on their personal preferences. Find out who your legislators are through the interactive map or address search posted on the Legislative Website here: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find

 

UEN Advocacy Resources:

Check out the UEN Website at www.uen-ia.org to find Issue Briefs, these UEN Weekly Update Reports and Videos, UEN Calls to Action when immediate advocacy action is required, testimony presented to the State Board of Education, the DE or any legislative committee or public hearing, and links to fiscal information that may inform your work. The latest legislative actions from the Statehouse will be posted at: www.uen-ia.org/blogs-list. The 2025 UEN Advocacy Handbook will be available and posted shortly.

 

Bill Action This Week

Check out the following pages for all the details.

 

Contact Us

Stay tuned for a thorough explanation of Statehouse actions this week.

Margaret Buckton
UEN Executive Director
margaret@iowaschoolfinance.com
515.201.3755 Cell

 

Thanks to our 2024-25 UEN Corporate Sponsors:

Special thank you to your UEN Corporate Sponsors for their support of UEN programs and services. Find information about how these organizations may help your district on the Corporate Sponsor page of the UEN website at www.uen-ia.org/uen-sponsors.

 

Capitol Update