Governor Kim Reynolds has signed House File 2612, a bill that makes major changes to Area Education Agencies, and the chair of the Senate Education Committee believes those were necessary.
State Senator Ken Rozenboom was among the leaders discussing potential changes to how AEAs operate, and counters the concerns of the opposition are overblown — especially since he believes the vast majority of school districts in Iowa will continue utilizing AEA services.
“The most frustrating thing about this bill all along was that the people opposed to any change at all never once changed the rhetoric, never once changed the narrative, always presented this as a dismantling of the AEA system, always presented it as a ‘sky is falling narrative.” None of that was ever true, and certainly isn’t true today. The current system, there is absolutely no transparency, no accountability. The local school board simply sends every property tax dollar they get for ed services and media services, they pass those dollars right through the AEA, and then in return, they get a bundle of services. There’s no pricing mechanism and no way of determining the value of those services. Every property tax dollar you’re collecting in your school district goes to the AEA. But nobody can tell you the value or the price of the services they’re getting in return. So this allows the local school board to look at their property tax dollars and then ask the AEA, well what does this cost, or that cost? So if the ADA is truly doing their job and are competitive, then they will get those dollars like they always did before. If on the other hand, those dollars are not used well or wisely, or those services aren’t even actually needed, then the local school board can use those dollars as they best believe, as they see fit.”
Rozenboom says lawmakers listened to feedback from across the state with different stakeholders.
“The bottom line is this, the Governor’s original rollout of her plan was not well rolled out — it went too far. And I don’t know that people even remember, but our Senate Republicans, Lynn Evans and I literally threw that bill in the trash at the first subcommittee hearing, and we started over. So since then, there’s been a series of House version, Senate version, Governor’s version, new Governor’s version. And so, at the end of the day, we’re in a much better place than we were before. I’ve said many times, there are a thousand bright stars in the AEA constellation, and this was always perceived as an attack on that, it never was that. It was always an attempt to reform a 50 year old system that had their mission and their performance grow a little vague, a little fuzzy.”
By fiscal year 2026, school districts will be still required to spend 90% of the special education funding they receive with AEAs, and the rest of the money from that fund and their education and media services revenue could be spent elsewhere and for some other uses. House File 2612 passed with only Republican support against bipartisan opposition in both chambers. The bill also contained minimum teacher pay increases for new educators and those with 12 years experience, and also established the annual state education aid increase at 2.5%. A version of the teacher salary increases did pass the House nearly unanimously, but the Senate insisted it be packaged together with AEA changes.