Please sign up for legislative news and alerts on our NEWSLETTER page.
2022 Session Update –
Governor Reynolds’ education reform bill – includes a provision creating a Student First Scholarship Program, which would give just under $5,400 in an Education Savings Account to eligible students. Those eligible include public school transfer students with a household income at or below 400% poverty level OR those with an IEP, as well as all incoming Kindergarten students who meet those requirements. The program would be capped at 10,000 participants the first year.
Active versions of Governor’s education bill:
SF2369 – the successor to SSB3080 and SF2349, was passed by the Iowa Senate on March 30 on a vote of 31-18. This bill amends previous versions by doing away with the special appropriation to small rural districts and replacing that with funding going into funding for operational sharing of public school districts. The ESA amount of approximately $5,400 is 70% of the per-pupil funding associated with a student – the bill now provides that the remaining 30% will go into this operational sharing fund, rather than a fund to be allocated to those small, rural districts.
House Study Bill 672 – the House version of the Governor’s education bill (identical bill) was introduced on February 8 and was initially assigned to the House Education committee. It was reassigned to the House Appropriations Committee on February 17 and was heard by a subcommittee on March 8. The subcommittee passed the bill and so it is now eligible to be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee.
Previous Bill Numbers/Versions – no longer active:
SSB3080 – the initial version of the Governor’s bill, was released on Monday, January 31 and was heard by a Senate Subcommittee on Wednesday, February 2. The full Senate education committee passed the bill on February 17. It was reassigned to the Appropriations Committee and assigned a new number, Senate File 2349. The bill was later replaced by successor SF2369.
SF2349 is the successor bill to SSB3080 and was assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill was passed by a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on February 23rd, and passed by the whole Senate appropriations committee on Monday, February 28. This bill was replaced by SSB 2369.
House File 2223 – was introduced on February 2, 2022, by Representatives Skyler Wheeler, Henry Stone, Mark Cisneros, Dean Fisher, Sandy Salmon, Cherielynn Westrich, Brooke Boden, Steven Holt, John Wills, Steven Bradley and Jeff Shipley. This bill would establish the Hope Scholarship Program. Starting with the 2023 school year, students eligible to enroll in grades eleven and twelve would be eligible for a scholarship, then 2 grades are added on each year over time. There is no income limitation on eligibility. The bill did not make the February 18 funnel deadline and so is done for the session.
Please go to our Newsletter page to read the latest news and to sign up for those and action alerts.