As the legislature moves toward ending its 2026 session, the Iowa House and Senate have approved a bill that outlines $1 billion in state spending for Iowa’s education system in the next academic year.
It includes a 1.44% increase in stata funding for community colleges, which had requested a 4% increase and what Republican Representative Dan Gelbach of Urbandale described as a “flat line” budget for Iowa’s three state-supported universities. “Before we ask taxpayers and students to pay more…it’s about using existing dollars more wisely, cutting duplication, streamlining administration and focusing on programs that serve students and our workforce needs as Iowans,” Gelbach said.
Representative Elinor Levin, a Democrat from Iowa City, said the plan misses the mark. “The funding levels for community colleges in this budget, the status quo funding for the Regents universities in this budget,” Levin said, “…they don’t reflect pride in our education system.”
Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, said students at the three Regents universities are seeing their tuition rates increase as a result of this plan. “I’m about the future of the students that I have taught in my classroom at Iowa State…also the private college students because the Tuition Grant program for private colleges also has zero increase,” Quirmbach said.
Senator Jesse Green, a Republican from Boone, said the bill provides an overall $121 million increase in state spending on all levels of education, from preschool through college. “In the last 10 years we’ve seen a 10,000 enrollment decline at the Regents,” Green said. “…I had constituents reaching out and asking for more funding for community colleges. I did not have a single constituent that reached out and said, ‘Hey, we want to prioritize the Regents this year,’ so this budget is reflective of that.”
The bill sets aside half a million dollars to help Iowa school districts enhance cyber security. There’s also a 2% increase in state funding for the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs and statewide education services for blind and visually impaired students.