Republicans in the Iowa House have developed an alternative to Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed overhaul of Area Education Agencies that help educate students with disabilities.
“We wanted to provide certainty for special education,” House Speaker Pat Grassley said this afternoon. “We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was.”
Reynolds unveiled a plan in january that would let schools use a private firm, a different AEA or hire more special ed staff in their districts for the next school year. The House GOP bill would start sending state and federal special education funding directly to schools rather than the AEAs — as the governor proposed — but it may only be used for special ed services from the local AEA.
“We’re not changing the ability for AEAs and schools to work together,” Grassley said. “This plan would continue to encourage that.”
The plan calls for a study of AEA operations that would involve legislators, educators and parents. A new Division of Special Education in the Iowa Department of Education would be created, as the governor proposed, but far fewer employees and most of them would be assigned to work in the AEA regions. The nine AEA administrators would see their salaries cut to be in line with local superintendents in their region.
In years two and three of the House G-O-P plan, schools woud no longer have to use the AEAs for media services or other education-related services, like teacher training and curriculum materials.
“We know that there’s still work to be done on some of the details,” Grassley said, “but we also know we’re against the clock right now and we feel we’ve taken a lot of input to get to the point where we’ve addressed a lot of the concerns that have existed on all of these issues, to try to continue to move their conversation forward for the legislative session.”
House Republicans decided a few weeks ago to table the governor’s bill on AEAs. “I appreciate that we will be able to continue the conversation,” Reynolds said in a written statement after the House GOP plan was announced.
In a separate bill, House Republicans propose raising the salary for new teachers to at least $50,000 — as the governor called for — but over the next two years. Grassley said that would give schools time to adjust the pay for current teachers who are making less than that. House Republicans want to send $14 million dollars to schools to raise the pay for other school staff. “Really looking at your in-the-classroom paraeducators and others that we know our school districts are struggling to find right now and retain,” Grassley said, “and part of that also gets back to that one-on-one instruction in the classroom dealing with special education students, so we think it feeds in and ties into what that other conversation is with the AEAs.”
These proposals are scheduled for debate in the House Education Committee tomorrow, along with a bill that would increase general state per pupil spending on public schools by 3%.