Feb 25, 2022

This Week at the Statehouse – Week 7

Floor action in both the House and Senate dominated this week’s activities. Two bills adopted this week and await the Governor’s signature include HF 2317, which cuts individual income taxes, corporate taxes and no longer requires Iowa taxes on retirement income; and SF 183, which allows all governmental entities to use a construction manager-at-risk alternative delivery method for their construction projects, and specifically prohibits Regents universities from using the design-build alternative delivery method.

The House has released their budget targets; we’re still awaiting the Senate’s budget subcommittee targets. The House’s target for the education budget subcommittee, which includes funding for the Department of Education, community colleges, and the Regents institutions, is $31 million more than the current fiscal year, FY 2022. Their target is also $7 million more than the Governor recommended. The House target for the economic development budget bill is $1.5 million more than FY 2022.

March 10th is the when the Revenue Estimating Conference will hold their March meeting. The REC was established to arrive at consensus the state’s General Fund revenue estimates to be used by both the Governor and Legislature for their budget process. If the REC in their March meeting raises the net General Fund revenue estimate for the subsequent fiscal year, the Governor and Legislature are to use the lower amount estimated in December. If the REC during this meeting lowers the net General Fund revenue estimate for the subsequent fiscal year, then the Governor and Legislature are to use the lower amount.

STATUS OF BILLS OF INTEREST:

HF 2416 TRANSGENDER GIRL ATHLETES. Passed House, eligible for Senate Floor debate

  • Prohibits transgender girls from participating in female, women’s or girls’ sports in K-12, community colleges and all higher education institutions (public and private).

HF 2081 PRAXIS TEST. On Monday’s House debate calendar

  • Eliminates the Praxis test requirements for teacher candidates to get their teaching license at the end of their teacher preparation program.

HF 2398 TEACHING LICENSE RENEWALS. Eligible for House Floor debate

  • No renewal requirements for teacher/administrators (licensed practitioners) with master’s or doctoral degrees.

HF 2421 TEACHER ALTERNATIVE PATHWAY TO LICENSURE. Eligible for House Floor debate

  • Creates an alternative pathway to teacher licensure in the Iowa Code. This is similar to the Regents RAPIL program but less coursework is needed. If you have a bachelor’s degree, you will be able to teach in grades 6-12 if you meet the requirements of an endorsement area for the intern teacher license, have at least 3 years of work experience, a copy of an offer for employment from a K-12 school, complete required pedagogy training, complete at least 15 hours of coursework. The coursework and teaching can be at the same time. The intern teacher will be paid. They will work with a teacher leader in the school during co-teaching and planning time. After their one-year teacher intern license, if the K-12 school and the higher education institution who provided the coursework agree, they will recommend the teacher intern for initial licensure with BOEE. The Senate has a similar bill, SF 2202, which also includes changes to the Teach Iowa Scholar program and teacher recruitment incentives.

HF 2500 ONLINE TEACHER CERTIFICATION/ALTERNATIVE PATHWAY TO TEACHER LICENSURE. Eligible for House Floor debate.

  • BOEE must issue a temporary initial teaching license to an applicant who has a bachelor’s degree and successfully completes an alternative teacher certification program that includes the required content training in the area in which the applicant seeks to be licensed and pedagogy training. The certification program must operate in at least five states and must have been in operation for at least ten years (i.e. americanboard.org).
  • An individual who successfully completes the program and is granted a temporary initial teaching license is authorized to teach the subjects and grade levels that the individual successfully completed during the alternative teacher certification program.
  • BOEE must treat an individual who successfully completes this certification program in the same manner as an individual who completes a traditional teacher preparation program and who receives an initial teaching license, including during the process of converting the temporary initial teaching license to a standard teaching license.

HF 2443 SMART CONTRACTS. Passed House, in Senate Judiciary Committee

  • The use of distributed ledger technology and smart contracts is allowed within electronic transactions. Creates a way to include these electronic transactions for recording purposes (i.e. county recorders offices for real estate).

HF 2298 NO COVID IMMUNIZATIONS. Eligible for House Floor debate

  • Immunization against COVID-19 cannot be required for enrollment in any licensed child care center, elementary or secondary school, or postsecondary school in Iowa.

SF 2250 GUNS AT WORK. Eligible for Senate Floor debate

  • Allows a person to carry, transport, or possess firearms in their locked cars in employee parking lots.

HF 2039 REGENTS ATHLETICS PLAY EACH OTHER IN ALL SPORTS. Died in the House Education Committee

  • The bill would have required all three Regent institutions to play each other in all athletic sports.

OTHER BILLS WE ARE MONITORING:

HF 2493/SF 2291 Para-educators to substitute teach; codifies current allowance under the Governor’s emergency Covid proclamation. Eligible for both House and Senate Floor debate

HF 2418 Social studies and civics instruction. Eligible for House Floor debate.

HF 2498 Teacher librarians/special ed/open enrollment. Eligible for House Floor debate.

HF 2499 K-12 library books/social studies and civics instruction. Eligible for House Floor debate.

SF 2349 Governor’s education bill/school choice/social studies and civics instruction/teacher librarians/special ed/open enrollment. Eligible for Senate Floor debate

Upcoming Dates

March 7 – UNI Day at the Capitol

March 18 – Second Funnel – House bills not passed out of Senate committees and Senate bills not passed out of House committees are no longer eligible for consideration (does not apply to budget, tax or oversight bills)

April 19 – 100th Calendar Day (lawmaker per diem expenses end)

If you have any questions, please email me at mary.braun@uni.edu.