This Week at the Statehouse – Week 2

Legislative committee and subcommittee meetings are underway this week. New bills are being filed daily for consideration, and the bills introduced last session are also eligible to be debated this session. As of today, the Board of Regents are registered on 89 additional bills for this legislative session.  This link will provide a complete list of bills we are tracking (in the box marked as lobbyist, type in Mary Braun).

A few bills of interest that were either introduced this week or subcommittee meetings were held:

SF 459 – all employers are required to allow all employees who have a permit to carry a weapon to lock their guns in their vehicles in employer parking lots. Employee is defined to include contract employees and volunteers. This bill has been voted out of subcommittee and is now before the full Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

SF 2058 - allow student-athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness. The bill has been introduced in the Senate Education Committee.

SSB 3017 – allows only certain flags to be flown on public buildings. The bill has been introduced in the Senate State Government Committee and a subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 27.

The Legislature’s first funnel date, when Senate policy bills need to come out of a Senate committee and House policy bills need to come out of a House committee to remain eligible for debate this legislative session, is February 21. This date does not apply to spending and tax bills.

This week I’ve also been discussing the proposed Board of Educational Examiner (BOEE) rules with the 10 members of the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee. The proposed rules would change the administrative rules that guide credit hour requirements for the All Science, All Social Studies, All English, All Business and Teacher Librarian certifications in Iowa. The faculty in pre-service teaching programs at all three Regents universities raised concerns about the sudden and drastic nature of these proposed changes. Also of concern is the lack of dialogue with the teacher preparation programs to ensure an understanding of what content would be sacrificed in these future teachers, or what alternatives there may be to help ensure all Iowa schools have qualified teachers in each of these subject areas.

The BOEE initial rules will be before the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee on February 7. Dr. Rachel Boon, Chief Academic Officer in the Board of Regents office, will provide public comments at this meeting, on behalf of the Board and the three universities. The Board believes that aligning Iowa certification standards with neighboring states is an insufficient justification for a change that could have impacts on student learning and preparation for the Iowa workforce and our outstanding postsecondary institutions in the state. Iowa’s Regent universities educate and train more than half of the PK-12 teachers and teacher librarians in the state. The perspectives of our universities and the faculty who provide this training is important to take into account when considering changes in certification and licensure standards.

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

Upcoming events in the legislature:

Jan. 29 – Randy Pilkington, Director of BCS, and Jerry Thiel, Director of the Metal Casting Center and Additive Manufacturing Center, will present our budget recommendations to the Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee

Feb. 17 – UNI Day at the Capitol, first floor rotunda, 11:30am – 2:30pm