Republican Representatives Royd Chambers (R-Sheldon), Annette Sweeney (R-Alden), Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton) and Pat Grassley (R-New Hartford) crafted legislation aimed at reforming the Board of Regents and their policies as an attempt to find more budget efficiencies and savings for the state.

“House Republicans took a serious look at ways to save Iowans money and help protect one of Iowa’s most vulnerable groups, it’s students,” said Rep. Royd Chambers. “We think this plan is a step in the right direction.”

Rep. Sweeney

Rep. Kaufmann

Rep. Grassley

Their policy, which is House File 2358, will also be offered as an amendment to the state government reorganization plan that will be taken up by the House this week. The bill outlines five ideas which Republicans think will help improve and streamline the Regents. The legislation:

• Limits any tuition increase to Higher Education Price Index (HEPI)
• Creates a Cost-Savings Task Force chaired by the State Auditor
• Mandates Public Hearings before any tuition increase
• Asks each university president to compose a comprehensive plan with benchmarks to decrease tuition, decrease administration costs and increase graduation rates
• Creates an analysis of professor teaching time

“Tough budget times call for all Iowans to tighten their belts and the Regents are no different. We must stop pushing the pain on down the line to Iowa college students and their families,” said Rep. Annette Sweeney. “It’s time to make some comprehensive changes and bring true reform to state government, and this is just one way we can do that.”

Republicans are hoping for bipartisan support for all or part of their proposal.

Under current law health benefits for current school employees must be paid for from the district’s general fund budget. HF 2001 allows districts to shift that cost onto property taxes.

Potential Property Tax Impact: $380 million

House File 2040 – Property Taxes Can be Used for Any General Fund Purpose
This bill allows districts to use the board approved portion of the Physical Plant and Equipment Property Tax Levy (PPEL) for any General Fund purpose. The bill specifies that districts may do this for the FY11 and FY12 school year. The bill opens any board-approved PPEL dollars generated in that fiscal year and any like unspent dollars to any general fund purpose.

There are three potential far reaching implications for this temporary “help”.

1. HF 2040 trumps an elected local school board’s vote to levy property taxes for school infrastructure related purpose.
2. HF 2040 could create an incentive to levy. Not every district has a board-approved PPEL levy. Opening up the use could prompt those school boards to initiate a new levy to supplement their general fund.
3. HF 2040 raises questions about the SILO/state sales tax. Under Iowa law SILO/state sales tax proceeds can be used for any PPEL purpose proceeds Questions are being asked whether districts can deposit SILO proceeds into the PPEL fund.. Hopefully this language can’t be interpreted as opening the SILO/sales tax for any general fund purpose.

Potential Property Tax Increase: Unknown.

In his state-of-the-state message, Culver promised to cover just a fraction of the $540 million “promissory note” looming for K-12 funding.

The $540 million hole in the school aid formula for FY11 was created by two across-the-board cuts, one-time TARP money (federal stimulus) money, 2 percent allowable growth and the statewide voluntary preschool program.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the $540 million funding hole:

$238 million – Culvers’ October 2009 – FY10 10 percent ATB
$32 million – Culver’s December 2008 – FY09 1.5 percent ATB
$200 million – One-time TARP (Federal Stimulus funding)
$43 million – 2 percent allowable growth for K-12 school aid
$20 million – Estimated increase in 4 yr old preschool program
$7 million – 2 percent allowable growth for categoricals (Teacher Comp, Class Size, Professional Dev.)

Culver promised to partially backfill $100 million of the $235 million October ATB cut and to fund 2 percent allowable growth for the K-12 funding formula.

That leaves an overwhelming $400 million that will likely fall on Iowa taxpayers.

“The governor signed the largest amount of spending in the history of Iowa and now that he can no longer sustain his bloated budget, he’s pushing a property tax increase onto the backs of Iowans,” said Paulsen.

With the governor’s recent across the board cut, he reduced the state funding for the K-12 foundation formula by $235 million. This is 10 percent of the amount the state promised school districts on a per pupil basis. However, this cut did not reduce the amount of spending authority districts have. Spending authority allows school districts to spend the allowed amount regardless of the amount of state aid. Ultimately, school districts have no place to find this money other than through increased property taxes.

Therefore, without the state government’s backfill of this money for K-12 education, Iowans will be saddled with an increase in their property taxes. This will happen even if school districts use available reserve funds because they will refill those reserves through property tax increases.

On December 1st, the governor stated he does not intend to restore any of his cuts to allowable growth and as a result, Iowans are now faced with a potential $540 million tax increase for Fiscal Year 2011.

“Iowans do not need higher property taxes, they need real leadership from their elected officials and willingness to dive into budgets and find real efficiencies,” said Paulsen. “House Republicans will continue our efforts to do just that. We will not support raising Iowans’ taxes.”

10% Across the Board Cut Analyses
Administration and Regulation ATB Cut Analysis
Health and Human Services ATB Cut Analysis
Economic Development ATB Cut Analysis
Natural Resources ATB Cut Analysis
Transportation ATB Cut Analysis
Education ATB Cut Analysis

How did other sectors of education fare? The Board of Regent has until October 29th to separately submit their cuts totaling $60 million. Shortly after Culver announced his cut, the Board offered the possibility of a second semester increase in student fees or “tuition surcharge” to partially offset the loss.

1. The Department of the Blind sees a $225,000 in state funding. The agency will not reduce staff but will cut overtime, delay delivery of textbooks and general library materials and delay routine maintenance.

2. The Iowa College Student Aid Commission sees a $6.3 million reduction with students shouldering the loss including:

• The 505 students receiving the Iowa Opportunity Scholarship serving will be cut by $490 per student
• The 15,000 private college students receiving an Iowa Tuition Grant will be cut by approximately $320 per student
• The 3,000 students receiving a Vocational Technical Grant will be cut approximately $85 per student

3. The Iowa Department of Education is cut $25 million with 10 percent reductions in key programs such as early childhood, before and after school programs and interpreters for the deaf.

Iowa’s community colleges lose $16 million in state general aid and $200,000 in faculty salary funding.

Iowa parents lose nearly $900,000 in preschool tuition assistance and local community empowerment areas loose another $750,000 in school ready grant funding.

Iowa school districts lose another $1.4 million in public option preschool grant money.

The loss of state funding jeopardizes federal funding in the following areas:

• A $225,000 reduction in state school lunch funding means Iowa looses $815,000 in federal school lunch money. According to the Iowa DE the impact “will result in a higher cost of student lunches.”
• A $60,000 reduction in state vocational education funding means a like loss in federal funds, but more importantly the Iowa DE says: “Reduction in this funding jeopardizes the entire funding stream ($12 million)
• A $155,000 reduction in state special education funding for early childhood “jeopardizes the entire $4 million in maintenance of basic funding and $4.5 million in ARRA funding.”

The Iowa Department of Education itself will not reduce employees but will consider furloughs equal to the salary of 14 employees.

4. Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation sees a $540,000 cut resulting in a $2.0 million loss in federal matching aid. The agency expects to lose 14 FTEs

5. Iowa Public Television is reduced by $1 million. IPTV reductions include:

• Loss of up to 6 FTEs
• No broadcast between midnight and 6 a.m.
• No summer episodes of Iowa Press and The Iowa Journal

This week Chad Adelman, a policy analyst at Education Sector, a nonpartisian think tank in Washington, D.C., wrote a guest editorial in the Des Moines Register praising the accountability piece but critcizing the strong state standards and high school exit exams.

This is Mr. Adelman’s second editorial. In June he wrote in favor of opening up Iowa’s ever-so-restrictive charter school law. Then, as now, Mr. Adelman did Iowans a favor. He delivers the harsh truth about the gloomy education future Iowa children face:

In June he wrote:

“In 1992, when I was 8, Iowa’s fourth graders scored higher than all but one state in math and all but four states in reading on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). Unfortunately, today’s Iowa children face a gloomier future than I did. Over a 15 year period ending in 2007, only three states had lower academic gains than Iowa, and Iowa now trails 14 states in both subject.”

Last week he wrote:

“Two-thirds of high school graduates enroll in college the fall after graduation, and many are unprepared for the demands of college-level work. These students must take remedial math and English courses to learn content they were supposed to have mastered in high school.”

In June he offered the insightful suggestion that Iowa needs a better charter law focusing on results and proven performance. Those magnet schools meeting agreed-upon performance thresholds should be encouraged to replicate and be given financial assistance and space to do so.

In June Mr. Adelman took the time to look at Iowa law and what’s really going on in our state. Last Monday, however, Mr. Adelman forgot to tune into what’s really going on in Iowa.

Contrary to what Mr. Adelman said, rigorous core academic standards are NOT happening in this state. In fact, the Iowa Department of Education recently backed away from any meaningful commitment to incorporate the very national core standards Mr. Adelman cites as his solution to Iowa’s problem.

Two months ago Education Director Judy Jeffrey said:

“With our recently passed Iowa Core Curriculum, Iowa can easily incorporate national standards because the Core Curriculum provides more explicit guidance to reach high expectations.”

Today, however, the DE director objects to the making these rigorous national standards a mandatory feature of the $4 billion federal Race to the Top. Director Jeffrey said that these national standards should be voluntary.

So Iowa students aren’t held to rigorous state standards because there are no rigorous state standards in place or in the works. All Iowans really have is “maybe will we or maybe we won’t” leadership.

Iowa spent millions of tax dollars developing core curriculum for teachers but as of yet has no road map for students and parents. The plan introduced by Iowa Republicans focuses on students and parents.

Rigorous core standards – the student and parent road map to success – do not exit. Just ask the parents of an Iowa 7th grader if they know what skills their child is supposed to develop this year.

In terms of exit exams, Mr. Adelman makes valid arguments regarding the difficult experience other states faced when starting from scratch and developing a single test. But he forgets to point out that of the 24 states with exit exams, 14 of them are expected to move away from the single test and toward the more useful end-of-course exams by 2015. Iowa Republicans are open to doing the same.

End-of-course exams assess the mastery of content of a specific high school course. Students don’t exit high school unless they pass these exams. This idea is not without precedent in Iowa.

Iowa’s high school athletes are required to receive a passing grade all their courses. But no similar state law exists in order to graduate from an Iowa high school. Why shouldn’t Iowa students be required to pass end-of –course exams in mathematics and English and science in order to get their diploma?

Since 2004 Iowa has received $25 million in assessment money from the federal government and yet this state continues to rely on a single test to tells us whether our students across the state are learning.

An alarming number of Iowa high school graduates can’t read or do basic math. Take a minute and think about these facts:

• 22% of all 11th graders can’t read at a proficient level
• 22% of 11th graders can’t do basic math
• Yet 90% of 11th graders will get a diploma

Strong state standards and backed by meaningful testing hold districts, teachers and student accountable.

Rep. Kaufmann

Rep. Hagenow

Rep. Sweeney

“The discussion of these bonuses along with the creation last winter of a new ($140,000 per year) Chief of Staff position at the University of Iowa, indicates that our Regents universities are completely out of touch with the very taxpayers who fund them,” said Kaufmann.

Rep. Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton), a teacher with a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, was joined by Rep. Chris Hagenow (R-Windsor Heights), a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa College of Law, who agrees that granting bonuses for these presidents at this time would be inappropriate.

“Most Iowans are not seeing a bonus or a raise this year. Many families are sacrificing to make ends meet, tightening their belts and living within their means,” said Hagenow.

Last year two House Republicans offered legislation which directed that if tuitions were increased at state schools, then salary increases would not be allowed. Kaufmann is prepared to add bonuses to the bill.

Mother of an Iowa State University student and State Representative Annette Sweeney (R-Alden) questions tuition increases at this time.

“A tuition increase at this time could be devastating for Iowa families. Every state-funded institution must be more vigilant at finding savings. And to even discuss bonuses at this time is certainly disheartening to many Iowans,” said Sweeney.

With nearly 60% of Iowa’s state budget devoted to some form of education spending, Iowans have every right to expect an educational product that prepares our students for college and/or a career. Unfortunately, even though Iowa students averaged the second highest ACT scores in the nation, a whopping 71% of students who took the ACT in 2008/09 were not prepared for college and 50%2 of our graduates must take some form of remedial class work when they get to college.

Most Iowans are justifiably proud of their local public schools. However, we cannot let that pride blind us from the reality that the standards, expectations, and accountability measures that were good enough a decade ago, might no longer be good enough today.

In addition, we must never allow the level of spending on education to be the sole yard stick that measures our success. Our students, teachers, and parents deserve an educational system that aligns our educational products with the needs and demands of a changing world.

Republicans have real solutions to help ensure students and teachers achieve at higher levels while providing parents and taxpayers with greater transparency and accountability for their success. Here is what Republicans will do if Iowa voters give them the opportunity:

Set Core Academic Standards and Empower Local Teaching Professionals
Governor Culver and legislative Democrats have approached academic standards by prescribing a one-size-fits-all, top-down, experiment on our students and teachers. Attempts to create a statewide core curriculum have focused on educational inputs that limit the flexibility of local teachers, parents, and school boards.

Instead, Iowa Republicans propose a series of academic achievement standards that align academic standards in reading, mathematics, history, and science with the demands of the global economy, careers, and further education, so that earning a high school diploma means a high probability of success. Our students are no longer competing with students in the Midwest, but with students in India, Russia, and China. In order to compete internationally, we must have world-class standards. In addition, Iowa Republicans propose to empower Iowa teachers, parents, and local school boards with the authority to determine the content of a local core curriculum and design local programs that help students meet the new state standards.

Exit Exams for Graduating Students and Entrance Exams for New Teachers
Setting high academic standards for our students and teachers is the first step in our educational reform agenda. Step two involves the development and implementation of appropriate testing tools to ensure students have met those standards and teachers are proficient in the subject matters in which they teach.

To be considered proficient in Iowa a student can be ranked as low as the 40th percentile on the ITBS and ITED tests. In 2007-08, 23% of Iowa’s 11th graders did not meet even this watered-down reading proficiency definition, nor did 22% in math3. Yet, in Iowa we graduate over 90% of all Iowa high school students. Republicans view this as a failure of the system and a result of setting low expectations for our students. This doesn’t make any sense and devalues the diplomas awarded to students who actually meet basic academic achievement standards.

Iowa Republicans will work to adopt legislation that requires the development and implementation of rigorous exit examinations in all basic academic subjects for graduating seniors to ensure those receiving diplomas possess the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully compete in the world.

In addition, it is not enough to subject our graduating seniors to such proficiency exams if their teachers have not been asked to go through a similar process. Iowa is one of only a handful of states that does NOT require new incoming teachers to pass basic proficiency exams in the core subject matter they intend to teach.

The results of a pilot teacher testing program in Iowa showed that 34% of students seeking a teaching license were able to pass either the entrance math or biology test. At the very least, Iowa Republicans will bring forth legislation that requires incoming teachers to pass the same exit exam in their subject matter required of graduating seniors before they can be licensed to teach that subject matter in an Iowa classroom.

Parent and Taxpayer Right to Know Act
The final key to the educational reform process is accountability. Parents and local taxpayers must be provided with the tools to evaluate the performance of their school system and hold local educational authorities accountable.

Republicans have previously passed legislation requiring local school districts to post an annual “Report Card” such that parents and taxpayers are fully informed on the effectiveness of their school system on a wide variety of performance measures.

Unfortunately, Governor Culver and legislative Democrats have quietly passed legislation to gut Iowa’s Report Card system and eliminate the public disclosure of key performance standards such as the percentage of district high school graduates who were not proficient in reading, math, and science. In addition, they struck a requirement that school districts provide written notification to parents when their child is reading below grade level.

This back tracking on the commitment to parents and taxpayers by Iowa Democrats is unacceptable. Republicans promise to not only restore the past performance measures, but to require the development and publication of comprehensive performance measures on an annual basis—including the true cost of educational delivery in each Iowa school district and comparative rankings with similar Iowa school districts.

Iowa Republicans will provide parents and local taxpayers with the necessary tools to hold their school systems accountable for the delivery of an education that meets the academic standards necessary to provide our students with a truly world class education. These tools are provided not as a tool for punishing under-performing school districts, but to provide early identification of problems to encourage a cooperative community effort to solve potential problems and bring their schools to an acceptable level of achievement.

Iowa Republicans: Real Solutions for Iowa’s Families is a joint project of the Republican Party of Iowa and the Republican Iowa House and Senate Caucuses. Through this project Iowa Republicans will promote a series of bold solutions to the problems facing our state in areas ranging from the budget to education, the environment and energy, family, health care and transparency.

What sparked NEA’s ire? The proposed federal regulations for Race to the Top, an Obama initiative with $4.35 billion available to the states that apply.

The regulations give more money and greater preference to states that do three things:

1. Encourage the use test scores for evaluating teachers;
2. Increase the number of high quality charter schools; and
3. Expand routes for alternative teacher licensure.

In a snappishly worded letter, the union said that it doesn’t support these three things. Yet President Obama campaigned on these values and Arne Duncan built his heroic reputation on the philosophy behind each of these reforms.

Kay Brilliant, the NEA’s director of education policy and practice, indignantly wrote: “…..it appears that the administration has decided that charter schools are the only answer to what ails America’s public schools.”

The union fear-mongered that legal challenges to local collective bargaining agreements would result if test scores are used for evaluating, paying and granting teachers tenure.

The Iowa Department of Education’s written comments on the federal regulations echo NEA’s opposition.

The state agency danced away from linking student achievement and teacher performance saying it is unfair and could be abused. The Iowa DE writes: “Efforts in linking students to teacher should focus on evaluating effective teaching strategies….rather than either a punitive or reward system for individuals.”

Regarding charter schools, as you read the comment below, remember that Iowa has one of the most inflexible charter school laws in the country. Every charter must operate with the confines of a local school district. Iowa’s restrictive law means only 8 school districts operate a “charter” school. Far below the state cap of 20.

The Iowa DE mistakenly interprets the small number of charter schools in Iowa to low public interest. The Iowa DE writes:

“Expecting that states lift the charter cap when there is little or no interest on the part of the public to add charter schools seems a political ploy rather than a realistic avenue to improving student learning.”

On the issue of providing alternative pathways for Iowans to become teachers and principals, the Iowa DE asks to remove the requirement from the Race to the Top application that states expand alternative licensing of teachers and principals. The state agency believes that the “culture and context” of the state should dictate alternative licensing. With 110,000 unemployed Iowans and chronic teacher shortages, the Iowa DE might want to re-check its “culture and context” threshold.

Regarding quality indicators for the college programs that prepare Iowa’s teachers, the Iowa DE writes:

“Teacher preparation programs should not be publically measured solely based upon the state assessment of students of the teachers and principals they educate. This should be removed.”

Finally, just two months ago Governor Culver proudly proclaimed that Iowa joined 49 other states in a common core national standards project sponsored by the National Governor’s Association (NGA).

According to the Iowa Department of Education’s web site, to insure rigor and relevance the NGA will create an expert validation committee to provide an independent review of the common core state standards, as well as the standards. This committee will be composed of nationally and internationally recognized and trusted education experts who are neutral to – and independent of – the process.

At that time Education Director Judy Jeffrey said:

“With our recently passed Iowa Core Curriculum, Iowa can easily incorporate national standards because the Core Curriculum provides more explicit guidance to reach high expectations.”

Today, however, the Iowa DE objects to the making these rigorous national standards a mandatory feature of Race to the Top. The state agency says they should be voluntary. Page 4 of the Iowa DE’s comments read: “Eliminate the requirement that moves a voluntary participation for national standards to mandatory.”

This article closes by noting that ISEA and School Administrators of Iowa wrote letters endorsing the Iowa DE’s comments to the U.S. DE.