Governor Reynolds has rejected two new rules for students who are taking community college classes while they’re still in high school.
School districts cover the costs for those college classes and a bill Reynolds vetoed would have let school boards ask parents to reimburse the district if their child fails or drops out of a community college course. Governor Reynolds said the policy could discourage students from low income households from seeking college credits. The governor said those high schoolers “often benefit the most” from taking college-level classes and the focus should be on helping them succeed.
Republicans in the legislature were advocates of the policy Reynolds vetoed. Senate President Amy Sinclair of Allerton argued it would hold students accountable. “If indeed you’re going to step up and say, ‘I will do this,’ you should follow through and do this,” Sinclair said during Senate debate several months ago. “You should not expect your school district to cover the cost of you being lazy or immature or irresponsible.”
Democrats voted against the bill. Senator Tony Bisignano of Des Moines argued the policy would put undue pressure on students just trying to figure out if they can handle college-level material. “And you know what? There’s no failure. You learn. They learned that it’s a little tougher. Maybe they learned they need to study a little bit more,” Bisignano said. “That’s what we should be concentrating on.”
Another bill the governor vetoed said if a community college class is offered both online and in-person, high schoolers would have to attend in person unless their superintendent OKs the online option. Reynolds called it a “one-size-fits-all statewide requirement” that could have limited options for students who couldn’t get to an in-person class, but could fit an online class in their schedule.
Reynolds also rejected a different timeline for future governors to submit bill drafts to the legislature. Under current law, Iowa governors may submit proposed bills all the way up to the Friday before the state legislature convenes. The plan Reynolds vetoed would have moved that deadline to November for the governor as well as all departments in state government. Lawmakers said the goal was to give the non-partisan agency that writes and produces the official copies of bills more time to do that work. Reynolds said the new deadline would have handicapped future governors who, like her, will be fine tuning the policies they want lawmakers to pass in the weeks and days just before legislators convene in Des Moines in January.