Hunter
03/22/24
The Iowa House passed an education bill Thursday that increased beginning teacher salaries but reduced the overall funding increase for K-12 schools.
The Des Moines Register reports the amended version of House File 2612 is the third version of the AEA legislation to pass out of either the House or the Senate this year. Republicans in both chambers have been making changes to the proposal as they try to find language they can agree on.
The final vote was 51-43, with 9 Republicans joining every Democrat in opposition.
In this version of the bill, the Area Education Agencies would be the primary provider of special education services to the schools and would get the majority of the funding. It would be up to the individual districts to decide whether to stay with the AEAs to provide media and general education services or to work with private entities.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst accused Republicans of bringing the amended bill to the floor, quote, “because they are scared of the governor and they are trying to play political games with kids with special needs in this state.” She added that lawmakers have been inundated with emails, phone calls and personal interactions from Iowans who wanted the AEA’s to stay the same.
The new version of the bill raises minimum pay for beginning teachers to $50,000 and includes money to raise the salaries of experienced teachers and raise the pay of non-salaried staff.
The original House bill proposed a 3% increase in education funding; the amended bill drops it to Governor Kim Reynolds’ suggested figure of 2.5%.
The Iowa Senate was out of session Thursday and will return next week to consider the House’s version.