Friends,

This week in Public Safety, I passed HF 42 out of committee, now it is eligible for a floor vote. In Labor and Workforce, I was able to pass HSB 26 out of committee and it is now eligible for a floor vote. I also was the chair of the subcommittee over HF 231, which will now be moving into committee. One out of 10 Iowans have unclaimed property

Feb. 1 was National Unclaimed Property Day and the Iowa State Treasurer was able to celebrate the occasion by returning a Purple Heart to the family of a military veteran who had passed away and the office had come into possession of a security deposit box containing the medal.

In Iowa, there’s currently more than $587 million in safekeeping waiting to be claimed. Each year, millions of dollars and hundreds of safe deposit boxes are turned over to the Treasurer’s Office after financial institutions and businesses lose contact with the owner. In addition to tangible items like safe deposit box contents, monetary items like forgotten checking and savings accounts, stocks, uncashed checks, life insurance policies and utility refunds are also turned over to the State as unclaimed.

Through the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt, the Treasurer’s office staff work to reunite the assets with the owners or heirs. The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt is Iowa’s only legitimate source of unclaimed property. The website is free and secure and allows you to search for your name or for businesses and people you know at: www.greatiowatreasurehunt.gov.

• House Study Bill 56

House Study Bill 56, the Increasing Civics Proficiency in Higher Education Act, was approved by the House Higher Education Committee. The bill is part of the committee’s comprehensive review of Iowa’s higher education institutions and what the institutions are using taxpayer dollars to teach. The bill requires students at Iowa State University, University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa and Iowa’s community colleges to complete a course in American history and government.

The course must cover basic principles such individual liberties, representative government, federalism and the division of powers between the federal government and the states, and the separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

The course must also cover founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, some of the federalist papers and the Emancipation Proclamation.

• House Study Bill 138: House Republicans’ SSA proposal

This week, the Senate passed a bill to increase SSA Funding for the next fiscal year by 2 percent. This is in alignment with what the Governor proposed in her budget. Iowa House Republicans are interested in getting more funding to public schools and have a proposal of our own. We passed our bill through the Iowa House on Thursday. Here’s what it entails:

— An increase of 2.25 percent in SSA funding. This increase, plus the second phase of the teacher salary increase passed last session results in $114.5 million more for public schools.

— A one–time increase of 0.6 percent SSA payment which equates to $22.6 million more for schools.

— An $10 increase in per pupil equity, which equates to a $5.8 million increase.

— An increase in the Operational Sharing Budget from 21 to 25, providing an additional $1 million to schools.

— Increasing School Transportation to cap the cost of transportation for each school district at the statewide average of $430, resulting in $5.8 million in additional funds.

Altogether, these increases equate to a 3.93 percent increase in state funding to public schools. The new state cost per pupil under this proposal would be $8,039 per pupil. That includes $27 per student for the .6 percent increase. In FY 2025, we allocated $3.7876 billion to public education. This proposal would allocate $3.9368 billion. These increases represent the many specific funding issues we hear from our school districts. While each line item may not affect each individual school district equally, one line item may have a big impact on addressing the issue a specific district is facing. House Republicans are working to respond to the specific concerns we’re hearing from our schools in a responsible manner.

We recognize that our 30–day deadline to settle an SSA number has passed. We are hopeful that this delay will be worth it as we work to secure additional dollars for our public schools. We will continue to work to reach resolution on this issue in a timely manner so that our school districts have adequate time to set their budgets.

How does this compare to ESA Funding?

Democrats have circulated the misleading claim that we are increasing ESA funding by 44 percent while increasing public school funding by 2.25 percent. They say this to make it sound as if we are spending more on private schools than on public schools. But that is far from the truth.

The cost of ESAs increases each year at the same rate as the number we set for SSA. This year is the final year of expansion in the ESA program that allows all families to qualify. Which is why the increase looks greater this year. The increase to the ESA program under the House proposal would be $97.4 million. To be clear, this is on top of the $149.2million increase outlined above that is just for public schools.

Even with this expansion, the cost of the ESA program does not even come remotely close to the amount we spend each year on public schools. Check out this graph for a side by side comparison.

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Contact Joshua Meggers at

joshua.meggers@legis.iowa.gov.