Iowa lawmakers unveil AEA changes. Here's how they affect special education, teacher pay:

Iowa House Republicans unveiled a new plan Wednesday that would retain Iowa's Area Education Agencies as the sole provider of K12 special education services.

Hours later, Senate Republicans released their own, which would allow school districts to take the lion's share of current AEA money and use it at their discretion for special education and other services.

The changes create a pair of dueling proposals that both rewrite one of Gov. Kim Reynolds' key priorities ahead of a Friday legislative deadline.

Reynolds has received widespread pushback on her plan to allow school districts to choose whether to rely on the state's nine AEAs for special education services or contract with another provider.

Some of that resistance has come from her own party. Earlier this month, House Republican lawmakers refused to advance her bill through a subcommittee hearing, while Senate lawmakers moved the bill forward while acknowledging that they'd like to see significant changes.

House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said his members heard Iowans' concerns about changes to special education.

"We wanted to provide certainty for special education," he said. "We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was. And we feel our plan provides that certainty into the future when it comes to special education."

The House GOP proposal, House Study Bill 713, lays out a three-year timeline in which school districts will be permitted, starting in the 2025-26 school year, to look for outside contractors to provide media services and general education services. Special education services would remain solely the jurisdiction of the AEAs.

Reynolds provided a one-sentence statement Wednesday in response to the House bill.

"I appreciate that we will be able to continue the conversation," she said.

Senate Republicans released their plan through a committee amendment later Wednesday night, advancing the new version to the floor. Their proposal would, starting in 2025, redirect 90% of money sent to the AEAs for special education services and 60% of money for general education and media services to local districts instead of the AEAs themselves.

The districts would use those dollars to determine whether to continue contracting with the AEAs for those services or to seek other avenues. Unlike the House bill, districts are not required to remain contracted with AEAs for special education services.

More: What are AEAs and why is Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds trying to overhaul the special ed agencies?

Democrats have strongly resisted Reynolds' proposed changes to the AEAs. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said Republicans shouldn't play politics with the AEAs.

"The people who seem to be forgotten sometimes in this political battle are the kids who need services," she said. "So House Democrats will be continuing to focus on those kids and those services, not the political games that are being played during session."

Senate Democrats echoed that sentiment in committee Wednesday night.

"We've all heard from those same people, and we know that they want this dropped," said Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids. "They want their schools to have these services."

How does the House Republican AEA bill differ from Reynolds' proposal?

House Republicans' plan would differ from Reynolds' proposal in several key ways:

• The House bill would continue sending all federal special education dollars directly to the AEAs, rather than to individual school districts, as Reynolds proposes.

• State aid and property tax dollars that currently go to the AEAs would go to school districts under the House bill, but districts would be required to continue using AEAs for special education services.

• When the plan is implemented, schools could choose whether to continue contracting with AEAs for media services and general education services under a "fee for service" structure. Or they could choose to get those services from a private provider.

• None of those changes will take effect until the 2025-26 school year under the House plan. Reynolds' bill would make changes beginning with the upcoming school year this fall.

• Reynolds' bill would have implemented a $35 million property tax cut by axing the money that AEAs receive for media services. The House bill keeps that money but sends it to school districts.

"We know the timeline was a big deal, how quickly it was moving," Grassley said. "This gets us out to the '25 school year before there’s really any true change at the school district level."

More: Kim Reynolds' bill to overhaul AEAs advances in Senate, but House lawmakers balk

Grassley said he'd briefed the governor, House lawmakers and AEAs on the new plan, and pledged to continue having conversations to make further changes. He said his caucus' new plan to implement changes gradually would allow for districts and agencies to better prepare.

"I think this plan keeps that path moving forward, but at the same time recognizing that trying to implement something over the next few months was probably an unachievable goal for our school districts to be able to do," Grassley said.

The bill also creates a task force to make recommendations on AEA properties, services, oversight and staffing by the end of 2024.

House Republicans were trying to fast-track the bill through the committee process, alongside new caucus plans to address teacher pay and school funding, ahead of Friday's first legislative "funnel" deadline.

Konfrst said she'd rather see lawmakers gather more data before making any changes to the AEAs.

"We continue to reject the premise that AEAs needed wholesale change and to be overhauled," she said. "So we’re going to be looking very closely to see what the impact will be on kids in rural communities who need mental health services and special education services."

At a subcommittee hearing for the plan Thursday, advocates and education groups called it an improvement but emphasized that they'd like to see further changes, such as allowing shared operations and employees between districts and AEAs and including crisis intervention services.

And several people hesitated at the scope of authority the education director would have under the bill, warning that it could undercut region-specific services and requests.

"The schools should be able to determine what services they need and request those services without having to fear that there's going to be a rejection of that budget, as well as positions being lost," said Heather Sievers of Altoona, whose child has used AEA special education services.

Reynolds has touted her plan to overhaul AEAs as a necessary move to trim down what she has characterized as too-large institutions with high costs, excessive staffing and wide-ranging duties. She has also said Iowa special education students are lagging their peers around the nation in educational outcomes.

But her proposal, even after an amendment, proved unpopular among some lawmakers, and many educators and families who receive AEA services. While her plan was cautiously advanced in the Senate last month, a House subcommittee declined to do the same, citing a need for "further conversations."

Senate plan sends AEA money directly to districts to make contract choices

The Senate plan, outlined by Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, would send a majority of the dollars currently provided to AEAs directly to school districts instead:

• Starting in fiscal year 2025, 90% of funding dedicated to special education services would be sent to districts, who can use that money to decide whether they remain contracted with the AEA for special education or seek another provider. The remaining 10% of that money would go to AEAs.

• Districts would receive 60% of money currently sent to AEAs for media and general education services, also giving school boards the choice whether to remain with the AEA or another provider. AEAs would receive the other 40% of that money.

• For fiscal year 2024, AEAs would still receive all of their allocated special education funding and money for professional development services. Those professional development service dollars would remain with the AEAs going forward.

• Under the plan, districts are not obligated to remain under contract with the AEAs for special education or any other services, unlike the House plan.

• Districts would decide annually by Feb. 1 whether they wish to contract with their AEA for special education services.

"Let's allow our AEA directors … to come up with solutions on becoming more efficient and more effective," Evans said. "They've asked for that time, we're giving it to them with this amendment."

He emphasized that further changes were almost certainly coming before floor debate on the proposal.

But Democrats expressed extensive frustration with the altered proposal. Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, was concerned the split in funding would create gaps in critical services, particularly among rural districts.

"I'm very concerned that this split of 40/60 might mean they just don't have the resources to be out there supporting our state," Trone Garriott said, pointing to AEA officials that were on site in Perry last month after a school shooting.

How House Republicans would staff, oversee AEAs under new plan

House Republicans are also scaling back Reynolds' pitch for a new Division of Special Education within the state Department of Education.

Reynolds has proposed hiring 139 people to staff the division and has already begun posting job openings — despite the fact that lawmakers have not passed her bill.

Those positions would be funded, under Reynolds' plan, by shifting $20 million in funding from the AEAs to the state.

The House GOP proposal would not eliminate AEA jobs, but would add five state employees per AEA for the new Division of Special Education. Those employees would be stationed around the state, with another 13 employees based in Des Moines.

"We’re not trying to build the bureaucracy here in Des Moines from the standpoint of just more people to have more people," Grassley said. "We want to have accountability through people out in the field working with our schools and our AEAs."

The House bill would also limit the pay for the nine AEA administrators — a source of criticism from Republicans — by capping their salary at the average salary of school superintendents within the AEA's boundary.

House GOP proposes plan to raise starting teacher pay

Republicans in the House are also tweaking Reynolds' plan to raise teacher pay in Iowa, and planning to send more money for districts to use for salaries or other spending at their discretion.

Under the House plan, House Study Bill 714, starting salary for a first-year teacher would be $47,500 for one year before raising to $50,000 in the second year. Iowa's minimum starting salary for a teacher currently is $33,500.

Grassley said the two-year phase-in was in response to school districts expressing concern about managing budgets while bumping up the rest of the salary scale in response to a starting pay increase.

"We want to make sure school districts have time to implement that and make adjustments internally with the changes we made," he said.

Reynolds' plan would have set the minimum starting salary at $50,000, and also raised the minimum pay for teachers with at least 12 years of experience to $62,000. House Republicans' plan does not include the raise for teachers with 12 years of experience.

The House bill also includes $14 million to allow schools to pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour to other school employees who are not salaried.

To pay for the teacher salary increases, Grassley said House Republicans are proposing a 3% increase in state supplemental aid to school districts, about $25 million more than the 2.5% increase Reynolds has proposed.

Konfrst said Democrats "continue to welcome Republicans to the cause of teacher pay." She said she was glad to see the pay increase separated from the AEA bill.

"I think it was politics to put teacher pay in the AEA bill, so I’m glad to see that the House has separated those two things out," she said.

Galen Bacharier covers politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Republicans release new AEA changes, rewriting Reynolds' proposal