Hello, Iowa House District 84 from the State Capitol!

The second week of session was very busy and started out with Iowa caucuses, which gives Iowa the proud and important opportunity to be the first state in the nation to get up close and personal with potentially our next president of the United States. It is also a unique privilege to show just how great the people of Iowa are, excluding Old Man Winter!

The Iowa House members have been very busy with committee meetings and conducting subcommittee meetings on bills that could become law. I had a subcommittee on Wednesday morning for House Study Bill 518, which was filed by the Iowa Dept. of Transportation staff. The bill would like to get rid of duplicative reports currently required by law that when enacted in 2012, required an annual report on efficiency of the Road Use Tax Fund (RUTF). All legislators can get info from the DOT whenever we request it.

There has also been a lot of discussion and comments about Governor Kim Reynolds’ bill proposal (HSB 542) to make changes to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs). It is very early in the discussions, and often when a bill has the potential to have an effect statewide, it can have amendments making the bill better. I have no way of knowing what will happen with HSB 542, as it could even die in committee.

The reasons Gov. Reynolds has introduced this bill are because of Iowa’s special education student scores. Iowa’s scores have been reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as ranking 30^th or worse on nine of 12 assessments in 2017, 2019, and 2022. The Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) show the results of the Spring 2023 Assessment at a 41% proficiency gap for students with disabilities as compared to overall student results. Also, Iowa is the only state that requires all school districts to pay into an education support agency (AEAs) and then use that same agency for special education services. Iowa also spends over $5,300 above the national average on special education funding.

Additionally, the U.S. Dept of Education has designated Iowa as “needs assistance” for implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act since 2018. If Iowa doesn’t act on this, the Biden Administration could step in and determine a course of action. We’ve been told AEAs employ six times more staff than the Dept. of Education. The bill does not cut special education services to children, and it would have a very difficult time passing if it did. Iowa used to be at or close to #1 in education nationally, but is now ranked 13^th according to https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states-rankings/education. We can do better and we will because of the outstanding people of Iowa!

The last day of the first funnel week was this last Friday, and I filed a couple bills: one to increase penalties for drivers that cause an accident with farm equipment, and another to add to the Iowa code that drivers must yield to bicyclists and all pedestrians in crosswalks.

Have a safe week and be careful out there!