Marathon revenue meeting, AEAs, and child welfare on state docket

EDITOR’S NOTE: this is an abridged copy of Rep. Taylor Collins weekly newsletter.

House Sends AEA Reform Bill Back to the Senate with Amendment

I agree with the Governor that our special education students deserve the very best. As I’ve learned more about this topic this year, it’s become clear that we can do better. Despite Iowa spending over $5,300 more per pupil on special education funding than the national average, we’ve ranked 30th or worse in 9 of the 12 national assessments on special education performance. The U.S. Department of Education has categorized Iowa as “Needs Assistance” in providing quality education to students with disabilities, with the risk of falling to “Needs Intervention” next year. Our system, where the money is automatically sent to the AEA's, and the AEA’s having oversight of their own services, is unique to Iowa and leaves very little room for accountability. We know that the AEA's are doing critical work for our schools, and we have no intention of leaving school districts high and dry without access to those services. However, we can make a few changes to improve the system

Our plan will give school districts more flexibility, provide more accountability in the AEA system, and empowers a task force to study how to improve special education in Iowa. I voted yes on this bill because it contains some big wins for schools that the House has fought very hard for this year, and I will share many of those below.

This bill increases teacher salaries: to $47,500 in the first year, and $50,000 in the second year. This will put Iowa’s minimum teacher salary at the fifth highest in the nation. When adjusted for cost of living, this puts Iowa’s beginning teachers in a great spot compared to their peers.

It also adds a second tier for minimum teacher pay. Teachers who have 12 years of experience can make no less than $60,000 in year one, and $62,000 in year two. The addition of this second tier means a lot of new money particularly for rural schools since the money it takes to get to that salary level will go to each school district accordingly.

The bill also allocates $22.3 million for the teacher salary supplemental pot of money for schools so they can increase veteran teacher pay and to help with the pay compaction concerns we have heard from some school districts as they redo their salary schedules to account for these new minimum salaries.

Most importantly, all of this money will be built into the base going forward, meaning it will increase with state supplemental aid in subsequent years.

We took a lot of feedback from Iowans in the crafting of our original House bill, and the amendment we sent back to the Senate. We heard from parents, teachers, superintendents, and most importantly — the AEAs. I want to thank the many AEA employees in my district that have called, emailed, and attended my forums throughout this legislative session — your feedback helped in crafting this proposal, and your continued work serving Iowa's students is greatly appreciated.

A Meeting Unlike Any Other … the March Revenue Estimating Conference

Friday’s meeting of the Revenue Estimating Conference may have set a record for longest meeting in its 32 years of existence as the panel welcomed a new member and had an lengthy discussion on a topic which usually only takes a minute.

The conclusion of the spring REC meeting effectively fires the starter’s pistol on this year’s budget season. The Legislature will soon begin its work to formulate the 10 appropriations bills that will comprise the state’s spending plan for Fiscal Year 2025.

House Passes Legislation to Avoid Tax Increase on Iowa’s Livestock Farmers

House File 2649 passed the House floor this week with unanimous support. The bill renews an exemption from paying capital gains for sales of certain animals and absent its passage there would have more than $2.5 million in tax increases on Iowa’s hardworking livestock farmers. The exemption expired for tax year 2023.

The bill allows a taxpayer to exclude the net capital gain from the sale of cattle or horses if held by the taxpayer for breeding, draft, dairy, or sporting purposes for more than 24 months, but only if the taxpayer received more than 50% of the taxpayer’s gross income from farming or ranching operations during the tax year.

House File 2649 also allows a taxpayer to exclude the net capital gain from the sale of breeding livestock, other than cattle or horses, held by the taxpayer for a period of 12 months or more from the date of acquisition, but only if the taxpayer received more than one-half of the taxpayer’s gross income from farming or ranching operations during the tax year.

On the floor, House Republicans adopted an amendment to make the bill apply retroactively to tax year 2023 to avoid a tax increase. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Bill Advances Supporting Iowa’s Child Welfare System

This week, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed House File 2242. This bill makes several positive updates to Iowa’s child welfare system. The bill increases the per diem rates paid to foster parents and adoption subsidy by 10%, lowers the ratio of supervisors to social workers, provides state support for adoption home studies, and allows funds to go toward the kinship caregiver stipend program.

Last session, the legislature passed House File 584 to support Iowa’s foster parents. This bill came from a group of foster parents that worked tirelessly with the Department of Health and Human Services to make changes for the better for Iowa’s children. Foster parents provide a caring home to children that have been taken away from everything they know.

This bill established requirements of DHHS in communicating with foster parents, including visitation, case permanency plans, IEPs, medical appointments, legal history, removal of a child, investigations, and making complaints. It is the best interest of the child that foster parents have all the information available to help provide a supportive home environment.

There are currently 4,516 children in the child welfare system in Iowa, with over 1,000 in the care of a foster parent.

Staying in Touch

As always, you also can shoot me an email with any questions or concerns at taylor.collins@legis.iowa.gov or you can call the Capitol Switchboard and leave me a message at (515) 281-7340.

Sincerely, Rep. Taylor Collins.