This is the report from ISEA on issues this year. Enjoy and be informed. Sign up to attend Day on the Hill!! Our Children, Our Future This legislative session, the ISEA joined forces with other education groups including the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB), the School Administrators of Iowa (SAI), Area Education Agencies (AEA), and the Urban Education Agencies (UEN) to form a coalition entitled Our Children, Our Future. A primary focus of the coalition is setting the FY 2016 Supplemental State Aid (formerly known as allowable growth) within 30 days of the submission of the governors budget per Iowa law. See our point/counterpoints arguments made by legislators to help them understand why they must set the FY 2016 funding rate at 6 percent this legislative session. Community Colleges The governors budget does not include an increase for community college funding. Funding is left at last years levels ($193.3 million). The ISEA is pushing for an increase of $17.5 million resulting in a total general fund appropriation of $210.8 million. Our community colleges continue to be asked to do more with less at this critical time in our economic recovery. They are a vital source for job training, and retraining, economic development, and technological advances. Area Education Agencies The governors budget proposal does not include a restoration of the cuts made to last years budget. The ISEA supports restoring our AEA special education funding levels by $15 million for FY 2014-15 and increasing the Supplemental State Aid (SSA) level in FY 2015-16 to 6 percent. Iowas student population continues to change, but our funding principles have not kept up with those changes. We have more students living in poverty, more schools in need of updates, and more programs to be implemented. SSA funding needs to reflect these increases. Bills to watch Senate Study Bill 3105 - sets the SSA growth rate at 6 percent for FY 2016 (2015-2016 school year).Senate Study Bill 3106 - sets the categorical state aid growth rate at 6 percent for FY 2016 (2015-2016 school year). Senate Study Bill 3048 - seeks to include the addition of fine arts into the required core curriculum and the twenty-first century learning skills. The required core curriculum currently includes mathematics, social studies, science, and language arts. Senate File 339 - enables the Iowa Department of Education to inspect school buses more frequently, even those which are privately owned. Senate File 2018 - corrects an error made in the drafting of last years Education Reform bill (HF 215). A provision in HF 215 enables school districts to move to a 1080 hour calendar if they choose. Unintentionally, the bill removed language that allowed emergency early dismissal/late start and some professional development hours in the calculation of instructional time. SF 2018 seeks to restore that language and also defines a minimum day as 6 hours or 30 hours in five consecutive days. We encouraged this correction and are supportive of the bill. We have also made legislators aware of the urgency surrounding this issue and are hopeful the Senate will move this legislation quickly to provide clarification to all school districts.House Study Bill 525 - is the governors bill relating to anti-bullying and suicide prevention training for educators. While we applaud the governors office for placing attention on the importance of bullying and suicide prevention, we believe that these subjects deserve to be addressed singularly. Additionally, the bill would provide $25,000 for additional training for licensed educatorsand we feel that any meaningful training requires a more significant appropriation. We anticipate we will see multiple versions of this legislation and will approach each version cautiously to ensure that students are at the center of the languageand any additional requirements for educators are meaningful.Senate Study Bill 3047 - potential changes to the BOEE which would expand the scope of a school employees positions covered by the Board of Educational Examiners.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 03:20:31 +0000
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