Iowa

Background

The first session of the 88^th General Assembly adjourned on April 27, 2019, with the legislature and senate reaching a budget agreement. Iowa's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 2.4% for November, the state's jobless rate was 2.9% one year before and the Governor's priorities for FY 2020-2021 includes the ongoing "Future Ready Iowa" initiative: 1) Goal of 70% of Iowans with education or training beyond high school by year 2023, 2) Last-Dollar Scholarship Fund, 3) Employer Innovation Fund, and 4) State Clearinghouse for Work-Based Learning.¹

Funding priorities for p-12 and higher education

P-12 Education

Many programs were funded at the same level as last year and did not include programmatic changes.

• • General Administration: Division I, Section 5 (1a). Appropriates $5,949,047 to the Department for the general administration of the agency. Also, the Department's general administration funding included an increase in Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions from 60 to 65. This increase allows the Department greater flexibility to align, or hire additional staff, to funding sources and work responsibilities to support key state initiatives.

• • Career & Technical Education Secondary. The entire $2,952,459 is distributed to the 15 Regional Planning Partnerships for allowable expenses specified in the statute under Iowa Code chapter 258. The partnership determines how to allocate these funds within the partnership's multi-year plan. The multi-year plan is voted on by the full membership, which includes a representative from each school district in each region.

• • Student Achievement & Teacher Quality Program. Appropriates $2.9 million to support the following programs: National Board Certification, Career Development, Teacher Development Academies, Iowa's Teacher of the Year Program, Teacher Leadership Technical Assistance, and the Fine Arts Mentoring Program.

• • Statewide Student Assessment. Appropriates $2.7 million for school districts and $300,000 for accredited nonpublic schools to reduce the cost associated with the Iowa Statewide Assessment for Student Progress (ISASP). The appropriation will be distributed by the Department to Iowa Testing Programs on behalf of school districts and accredited nonpublic schools. School districts and accredited nonpublic schools will pay any remaining cost for the state assessment.

• • Statewide Clearinghouse to Expand Work-Based Learning.² Appropriation of $300,000 for support costs associated with the creation of the Iowa Clearinghouse for Work-Based Learning as part of the Future Ready Iowa Initiative. The Clearinghouse, which launches July 1, will invite employers to post projects online for K-12 schools to provide more students with authentic, professional learning experiences; will also include an inventory of other/existing work-based learning opportunities.

Community Colleges

FY2020 education budget of $952.7 million for Iowa's 15 community colleges, a $40.1 million increase (4.2%) over FY2019 levels. Community College funding priorities include:³ State Cost Per Pupil (SCPP) of $6,736 (+$580 YoY), Community College SGA Funding of $208.7 million (+$6 million YoY), All Iowa Opportunity Scholarship Program of $3 million (+$159K YoY), Last Dollar Scholarship of $13 million (+$0 YoY), and Iowa Tuition Grant of $47.7 million (+$1.1 million YoY).

Board of Regents

Overall, the Regents received a 2.7% increase from the state's general fund. For FY2020, the Regents received a lump-sum increase of $12 million for the three universities operating budgets. The Board is distributing $4 million each to SUI, ISU, and UNI.⁴ Board of Regents General funding from State General Fund include: University of Iowa ($218,710,793; 1.9% YoY), Iowa State University ($174,624,125; 2.3% YoY), and University of Northern Iowa ($99,712,362; 4.2% YoY).

Changes to the funding formula for p-12 or higher education

• • SF 603 Concurrent Enrollment/STEM.⁵ Increases the arts and sciences weighting from .46 to .50, applicable to funds to be received by school districts in budget years beginning July 1, 2019. Authorizes a school district to use contracted community college courses to meet offer-and-teach requirements for up to one unit of math or one unit of science.

pressing state issues affecting p-12 or higher education fundinG...