The 2024 Iowa legislative session ended Saturday. One thing local representatives agree upon is changes to the Area Education Agencies (AEA) consumed far too much time.

The proposed changes came out of the blue by Gov. Kim Reynolds, said Rep. Sue Cahill (D-Marshalltown). A report was generated by an out-of-state consultant and did not utilize information from school district superintendents, providers of AEA services or Iowa parents.

“That was not something that was expected in this session, and that took [a lot of time in] the first two, three months,” she said. “That was the key factor people focused on. Everyone got caught without knowing the purpose for the changes, what the changes were going to be and how they would affect students who need services from the AEAs.”

Not a single person campaigned on the premise of changing the AEA system, Cahill said.

Rep. Dave Deyoe (R-Nevada), who completed his last year in the legislature, said Reynolds’ proposal needed a lot of work. What was passed by the legislature, and ultimately signed by the governor, was not the original.

“There were a lot of major flaws,” he said. “It took a while to get it figured out and fix those major flaws – the biggest one was the implementation. It was too fast. We fixed it, but we spent so long dealing with it. It took time away from a lot of other things.”

The bill, which was signed by Reynolds in March, included a change to state special education funding. The first draft allocated all of the funding to the school districts, but now sends 90 percent of that money to the AEAs starting with the 2025-26 school year. The remaining 10 percent will transfer to the districts.

The original bill completely eliminated media services funding. The signed law will send 60 percent of media services money to districts and the remaining 40 to the AEAs beginning in July. However, in July 2025, 100 percent of that funding will go to the school districts.

As a result of the AEA bill, Cahill said the AEA system has lost 350 employees. In Central Rivers AEA, which serves the Marshalltown Community School District, 68 employees have resigned, including 18 from the Marshalltown location.

“They’re leaving because of the uncertainty of where their job is going, and what they can do in the future,” she said.

The law does not just make changes to the AEA system, but also to salaries of school employees. It increases teacher starting salaries to $50,000. Teachers with 12 years of experience will receive a salary of $62,000. Support staff will also get a bump in hourly pay.

The AEA bill was voted against by Cahill. Casting in-favor votes was Deyoe, Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) and Sen. Jeff Edler (R-State Center).

Even though the legislators spent a significant chunk of time this year on the AEA bill, they did manage to finish other things they wanted to accomplish. Deyoe was happy they were able to move the 3.8 percent flat tax rate to 2025, a year ahead of time.

“That is going to be good for the Iowa economy,” he said.

Deyoe was also happy to get a bill passed during the last day of the session establishing the Workforce Opportunity Fund. He said it will extend some important Iowa Workforce Development training programs, such as nursing and paraeducators.

Deyoe was disappointed the grain indemnity fund, which would have reimbursed farmers for losses when a grain dealer goes defunct, was not passed. He hopes the next batch of legislators will pick that up.

“It would have been nice to get that done,” Deyoe said.

He is not the only legislator who wanted to get other items completed. Cahill had a list of things she wanted to do, but found the path filled with hurdles for different reasons. Since she is a registered Democrat, Cahill is not a member of the majority legislative party. Therefore, bills brought forward by a member of the minority party are sent to the “trash can and never seen again,” she said. Some of the proposals Cahill introduced were ones she felt strongly about.

First she wanted to help towns in Iowa incorporate programs similar to MPACT to help people who would not benefit from incarceration.

“The bill would have made a grant available for such programs, current and future, but that was never taken up,” Cahill said.

She sought to increase the monthly stipend for veterans at the Iowa Veterans Home by $10. It was not a lot of money, Cahill said, but would have helped alleviate some of the sting of inflation.

“It was never even considered,” she said. “There was another bill asking for Medicaid recipients to get more, and was voted down by the Republicans.”

One of the lessons Cahill learned from the session was to not become too attached to a piece of legislation. She said agreements between the legislative houses were not held. According to Cahill, the bill giving grants for MPACT-type programs received unanimous approval from the House. She thought they had an agreement from the Senate, but they adjourned before it was brought forward.

“It was a good bill that was going to affect the people who need help,” Cahill said. “The legislation you put forth does not go to fruition until the governor signs. It was a hard lesson learned.”

For Deyoe, the lesson he got during his last session was the governor can bring too many proposals. He said Reynolds brought forward 19 proposed bills, which was four times more than normal.

“There were too many, too many problems and some things we did not get across the finish line,” Deyoe said.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.