Educators defend Area Education Agencies

AMANA — After 50 years, Iowa’s Area Education Agencies will get an overhaul, if the Gov. Kim Reynolds has her way.

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That doesn’t sit well with many educators and legislators, some of whom met at Millstream Brau House in Amana Friday to discuss the governor’s proposed changes.

In 1974, the Iowa Legislature established a statewide network of Area Education Agencies to serve children and students with disabilities from birth to age 21, according to the governor’s website.

Since 2000, their services and infrastructure have grown to include a wide array of other education and media services for school districts across the state, the website says.

Today, Iowa’s students with disabilities are performing below the national average, even though Iowa spends $5,331 more than the national average of per-pupil expenditures for special education services, the governor said.

AEAs received more than $529 million in funding for fiscal year 2023 yet have had little meaningful oversight or accountability over the years, the governor said.

And because special education funds flow directly to the AEAs, school districts have no choice but to use their regional AEA to provide services for their students.

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The governor proposed shifting state special education funding from AEAs to school districts, allowing them to work with providers of services the children in their districts need, shifting supervision authority to the Iowa Department of Education and authorizing AEAs to provide only special education services for children and students with disabilities from birth to age 21 and special and general eduction services to juvenile detention and foster care children and adults.

But Iowa Sen. Molly Donahue said that special education students will also be hurt. You can’t take away from general education and not hurt special education also, she said.

The bill introduced at that state house to change AEAs hurts rural schools, said Donahue. AEAs were created for equity, so rural schools could have access to the same resources as city schools.

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Rural communities don’t have speech therapists, occupational therapists, behavioral specialists that schools can hire on their own, or if they do, it will cost more than the schools can afford, Donahue said.

Donahue said that AEAs and the public schools go together. Private schools get AEA services, too, but don’t pay for them.

Private schools will lose AEA services under the bill, which is odd given the governors support of private schools, Donahue said.

“It’s going to become the governor’s choice,” said Donahue, not the choice of local schools.

“She will essentially be in charge of every school district in the state,” said Donahue. It will harm children and it’s stripping schools of local control, she said.

Bill Poock, with Grant Wood Area Education Agency, gave a lengthy list of services provided by AEAs. “We collaborate with our superintendents, our building administrators, teachers.”

AEAs provide professional learning, curriculum resources and support and technology and works with teachers to help them do their jobs, he said.

They provide early access support in homes.

AEAS provide speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, special education support, psychologists, English language support, support for teachers of talented and gifted programs, science curriculum, literary consultants, math consultants, science consultants and school improvement consultants.

Grant Wood finds substitute teachers for school and provides information technology services.

“We’re able to provide these supports and services to every classroom in Iowa,” said Poock.

Larger districts will have the ability to hire support people, but rural schools won’t, said Poock.

The bill will take away media supports, which will take away the technology that special education students use, said Donahue.

“There are some schools that don’t have Wi-Fi. They use the AEA’s Wi-Fi.” Take away the AEA, and their technology is gone, she said.

The proposals to change AEAs are moving too fast for AEA advocates. “We are all slowing down to look at this problem,” said Poock. They want to define the problem — if there is one — and find solutions.

The bill is dead on the House side, said Donahue. Sen. Lynn Evans is looking for ways to change the bill. Sen. Ken Rozenboom is find with it, said Donahue, and thought the first version should have passed.

“This is a bad bill,” said Donahue. Advocates should contact Republican representatives and senators to urge them to reject the bill.

“They are the ones that are holding the keys,” Donahue said. “There is no Democrat voting for this.”

Jessica Roman, early access teacher for Grant Wood, noted that teachers stay in the profession only about five years. In her first year of teaching, she was blow away by the support available for English Language Learners and special needs students provided by the AEAs. She wouldn’t have stayed in education without that support, she said.

There’s a learning curve when teachers first step foot into the classroom, Roman said. No one tells teachers what to do when someone throws a desk or when a child shows up hungry or not appropriately dressed for the weather, she said.

The governor, in her Condition of the State speech, reduced teachers to monkeys and named them as the reason for the failure of AEAs, said Roman.

“That was a kick in the teeth.” Roman thought about putting a for sale sign in her yard, she said.

“This bill had absolutely nothing to do with anything but that the AEA stood up for public schools,” said Donahue. ”This is retaliation.” The governor wants control, said Donahue.

“…[W]hat is unique to Iowa is that our school districts are forced to give their special-education funding to the AEAs,” Gov. Reynolds said her Condition of the State address.

“This mandate leaves little room for accountability.

“Over the last year, in dozens of conversations with parents, teachers, school administrators and AEA staff, it’s become clear that while some of our AEAs are doing great work, others are underperforming. We have superintendents who won’t use their services but are still required to pay for them.

“And AEAs have grown well beyond their core mission of helping students with disabilities, creating top-heavy organizations with high administrative expenses,” the governor said.

“Iowa students with disabilities are performing below the national average,” the governor said. “In the last five years, they’ve ranked 30th or worse on 9 of 12 national assessments. Yet, Iowa spends over $5,300 dollars more per-pupil on special education than the national average.”

The proposed bill will allow school districts to control their special education funds, Reynolds said. If schools like the services from their AEA, they can continue to use them. If they want to use a neighboring AEA instead, they can do that.

“Or, they can go outside the AEA system — contract with a private company or partner with other districts to share a speech or behavioral therapist,” said Reynolds.

“Or they can spend more on special education teachers and put the dollars right into the classroom.

“In short, each school will decide how best to meet the needs of their students,” Reynolds said.

Sen. Dawn Driscoll and Rep. Brad Sherman were invited to Friday’s forum in Amana but did not attend.