Iowa Legislature's Area Education Agency funding loophole is no 'drafting error'

GOP lawmakers have long demonstrated their disdain for public schools

Journey back in time to the early 1970s, an age when creatures known as moderate Republicans roamed the halls of the Iowa Capitol and Terrace Hill.

One such moderate was the late Iowa Gov. Bob Ray, who believed that every Iowa child should have an opportunity for an excellent education regardless of whether they lived in the smallest rural outpost or the largest city.

In the 1970s, Ray and lawmakers switched funding for education from being completely funded by local property taxes to districts receiving the biggest portion of their budgets from state tax allocation.

The idea was that everyone in Iowa benefits when our children receive high-quality education.

Alas, the moderates — especially the moderate Republicans — are extinct, replaced by far more dangerous creatures: ideologues and extremists.

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Extremists populate both parties, of course, but no sensible person fears Iowa Democrats because the only thing they seem to do well is lose elections.

The extremist Republican is the top predator in Iowa politics and probably will remain so for some time to come.

This brings us to lawmakers’ centerpiece legislation this year: the concentrated effort to destroy Area Education Agencies.

AEAs provide many services to schools, but one of the most important is support for students with differentiated physical and intellectual needs.

The legislature created 15 AEAs in 1974 because the quality and availability of services varied between districts. The idea was if we pooled our tax money statewide, a student with special needs could receive the same level of excellent service regardless of where they lived in Iowa.

The original 15 shrank to nine in the ensuing 50 years due to voluntary mergers caused by the more than century-long emptying of rural America.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, our Great Leader who has Descended from Heaven, wanted to wipe them all out with one bill this year.

But some of the weak in her pack — the snowflakes — were scared off by the heartfelt pleas of parents, teachers, and school districts who extolled the virtues of AEA services.

Lawmakers passed a revised bill and Reynolds signed into law. This version gradually stripped away money from the AEAs and sent it back to individual districts to provide services to students as they see fit — likely through private contractors.

There is nothing more our GOP-controlled government likes than funneling public money to the private sector. Nobody can spend taxpayer money better than private companies.

Left-leaning journalist-commentator Laura Belin reports the new law has a nasty loophole: When school districts eventually get 100% of the money once used for media and education services, the law says “funds not required to be paid to an area education agency may be used by the school district for any school district general fund purpose.”

In short: Money once dedicated to providing assistive services to students with special education needs or teacher professional development can now be used for teacher salaries, computers, books, pitching machines, or whatever local school boards deem necessary.

This sounds great if one ignores that not all districts have the same level of need for AEA support.

The districts with the highest need will have to spend that money on special education costs; those with lesser need can create unfair competition for the increasingly rare resource of new teachers — especially those endorsed in special education.

The whole point of having state funding for public education was to create equity in education for all Iowa students.

But Reynolds and Republican lawmakers don’t want that. They took public money to fund private schools last year. Now they’re dismantling the AEAs.

Rumors swirl that the AEA funding loophole is a “drafting error” in the bill.

Hogwash. Republicans have been very open and intentional with their efforts to dismantle public schools.

Iowa’s GOP seems to hold education in the same regard as they do healthcare: Only people who can afford it should have it.

Republicans treat equity as “woke” terminology to be fought rather than a system of values that delivers the promise of the American Dream to all its people, not just the rich.

More moderate politicians, or a decent Christian as so many GOP members claim to be, might say we have a moral duty to help those who need us most.

Bob Ray did, but he’s dead and so are the values he lived as a man and governor.

Today’s Iowa Republican is a different kind of animal than Ray. They’re cold-blooded reptiles.

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Daniel P. Finney, a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, wrote for newspapers for 27 years before being laid off in 2020. He teaches middle school English now.

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