A new state law that will redirect funding for special education across Iowa public schools is being criticized by some superintendents in southeast Iowa.
“Nobody asked for this bill, and we told them you need more time to do to get this right,” said Central Lee Community School District Superintendent Andy Crozier.
“And to see this shoved down our throats over the last few months, and then only have a few months to implement these changes could be very challenging for schools across the state of Iowa.”
The sweeping legislation will redirect where funding for special education and other education services are allocated. This means the state’s nine Area Education Agencies will eventually no longer receive the funding. Instead, the funding for special education, media, and other consulting services will go straight to the individual school districts.
Crozier said AEAs are critical partners in meeting special education students’ needs. He believes the new law will cause more school districts to opt out of providing these services.
The new law will also give public schools more funding and its teachers more money. Crozier supports that, as does Rob Scott, Superintendent of the Burlington Community School District.
But Scott said teacher salary increases and AEA funding should have been addressed in separate legislation.
“We knew the AEA language was going to take longer, and we were hoping to separate it for that reason, so we could get our funding part through so we could start doing that work and then be able to work on the AEA budget,” Scott said.
Iowa’s nine AEAs currently receive federal and state special education funding as well as property tax funding for media services and other education services.
The new law calls for redirecting 90% of these funds to individual school districts by the 2025-26 school year, and all of it by the following year.
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law on March 27. The bill was supported by most Republicans and no Democrats in the legislature.
In addition to the AEA changes, it calls for Iowa public schools to receive a 2.5 percent increase in general funding and it raises minimum teachers’ salaries.
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