Last week we passed a very robust education package dealing with school funding, raising teacher salaries, and the AEA’s.
I was very clear about my position on the AEA bill when I wrote two columns about it in the beginning of this legislative Session. I was clear the initial bill was flawed and I would not support it. I would not support ANY disruption in special education services and I would not support any employees being terminated.
I also did not support the centralizing of power in Des Moines under the Department of Education. The House passed its AEA bill two weeks ago after insistence by myself and others that the AEA’s were brought to the table and consulted.
The AEA’s were involved in the House bill and switched their position to “neutral” on the bill. The final version of the AEA bill was 90% of the House bill and that is a win you don’t see often in Des Moines.
The final bill gives school districts more flexibility, provides more accountability for the AEA’s, and empowers a task force to study how to improve special education in the future.
The bill still requires school districts to use the AEA’s for special education services and there will be no disruption in services. The final bill did not put the AEA’s under the Department of Education and does not prohibit their ability to perform services they do now.
We received a lot of feedback from parents, teachers, superintendents, and the AEA’s themselves. And finally, we stop the indefensible salary increases by the Chiefs of the AEA’s. Their average salary is over $300,000 per year. Absolutely ridiculous by any standard.
Teacher Pay
The bill increases the minimum teacher pay to $47,500 in the first year and $50,000 in the second year. This will put Iowa’s minimum teacher pay at 5th in the nation.
It also adds a second tier for minimum teacher pay. Teachers who have 12 years of experience can make no less than $60,000 in year one and $62,000 in year two. The addition of this second tier means a lot of new money for schools, especially rural ones.
Finally, the bill allocates $22.3 million for the teacher salary supplemental pot of money for schools so they can increase veteran teacher pay.
Workforce Gap in Schools
The bill also contains a policy that allows retired teachers to return to the classroom without affecting their IPERS benefits.
This will incentivize experienced teachers to return, perhaps as a substitute teacher, and alleviate some of the workforce shortages.
Paraprofessionals
The bill allocates $14 million to increase pay for educational support staff. I fought “tooth and nail” to have this proposal included to raise the pay of our education support staff. I am very proud of this section of the bill!
Finally, the bill raised state supplemental aid by 2.5%, which is approximately $110 million in new money.
When you include all the funding steams above, we are giving our schools a 5% bump, which is record for recent history. Do not believe the partisan political distortion regarding this bill!
Visitors to the Capitol: Dawn Smith – Durant; Supervisor Bruce Barnhart – West Branch.
Contact Representative Kaufmann:
E-mail: Bobby.Kaufmann@legis.iowa.gov<mailto:Bobby.Kaufmann@legis.iowa.gov>
Phone: 563-260-3355
Mail: 1527 330th Street, Wilton IA 52778