March 28, 2024

Education funding contentious at legislative coffee

All four county lawmakers answered constituent questions

School funding, water rights, human trafficking and mental health care were among the many topics raised by legislators and citizens during Saturday’s 90-minute legislative coffee.

The first of three Jasper County League of Women Voters legislative coffees scheduled for the first few months of the 2016 legislative session produced some contentious moments on those topics. About 50 people packed into the Newton Hy-Vee’s Club Room to hear from the legislators and ask questions, and received some replies that were, at times, detailed and/or passionate.

All four legislators whose territory includes part of Jasper County — District 15 Sen. Chaz Allen (D-Newton) District 28 Rep. Greg Heartsill (R-Columbia), District 29 Rep. Dan Kelley (D-Newton) and District 14 Sen. Amy Sinclair (R-Allerton) — were at Saturday’s coffee. Each legislator made an opening statement about priorities, positions and expectations before moderator Ruth Barnett scanned the audience for hands raised to ask questions.

One of the most lengthy exchanges happened on the final question of the coffee, asked by Jim Nilles, a Newton resident who teaches social studies at Knoxville High School.

“Will the House Republicans be willing to go higher than 2 percent (increase) on school funding?” asked Nilles, looking at Heartsill, the lone House Republican from the area.

“I am solid on 2 percent,” Heartsill said. “Last year, we were asked to get this done early so that we can get our budget set, and that’s what we’ve done. We weren’t trying to get in this game of ‘You pick a highball number, we’ll pick a lowball number, and we’ll find something in the middle. That isn’t how it works. We looked at all of the departments that are still suffering from the 10 percent cut of a few years ago. We came up with 1.25 percent as what we could afford, and we took the same approach this year.”

Kelley, who advocated for higher state supplemental aid to schools several times during the coffee, said the state must do better than the 2 percent increase in K-12 spending proposed by Republican legislators. Democrats have advocated for 4 percent, and the state’s Republican governor, Terry Branstad, has called for 2.45 percent.

“No matter what the legislature sets it at, we can’t let the governor just veto it without answering for that,” Kelley said, referring to Branstad’s line-item veto of a one-time $55.7 million appropriation for schools last spring.

School funding is a huge part of both legislative debate and the annual state budget. Sinclair, the ranking member of the Senate Education Committee, acknowledged the role of funding in the session in her opening remarks, pointing out how much more time she’ll spend on education than her other committees, especially early in the session.

“A thorough proposal of FY 2017 funding is going to be the top priority,” Sinclair said. “And the FY 18 funding proposal is being drafted as well.”

Kelley’s opening comments addressed, in part, the governor’s proposal to adjust the SAVE penny sales tax distribution to create potential money for water quality. He said pitting educators and farmers against each other is a mistake, and politically motivated.

“It’s kind of like asking ‘do you like dogs or bunnies?’” Kelley said. “And if you say you like dogs, he’s going to say ‘You’re a terrible person, and you hate bunnies.’ This is absolutely the wrong approach.”

Allen said it’s good to hear water quality in legislature conversations, and he’s hoping to see the two houses take a “buffet approach,” and pick out the best water-quality ideas to create a comprehensive funding and implementation formula.

Jasper County Democrats Central Committee Chair Taylor Van De Krol asked about the Governor's Conference on LGBTQ Youth, especially regarding an oversight committee's examination of the event. Heartsill is the vice chair of the House Government Oversight Committee.

“I talked to school administrators from LGBTQ-friendly schools who were incensed, appalled and outraged by the vulgarity at that conference,” Heartsill said.

Kelley said he and Heartsill strongly disagree on the conference, but also agrees that everyone should move on from it and focus on stopping bullying in schools.

Linda Kirchhoff, of Newton, asked what the legislators planned to do to combat human trafficking. All four legislators said action must be taken; efforts by Sen. Kevin Kinney (D-Oxford) are supported by both Allen and Sinclair.

Medicaid and mental health were discussed at length. Direct action was not discussed as much as increased legislative oversight; Heartsill acknowledged the closure of mental hospitals in southern Iowa by the governor has created a new challenge.

Sinclair cited the massive state costs of Medicaid as a main factor in privatization as one step toward a solution. Kelley criticized the governor’s “rush to privatize.”

Jasper County Veterans Affairs Commission member Jerry Nelson asked what the legislators are doing to bring jobs to the area, besides providing tax cuts. Allen was one of the legislators to reply, saying it’s important to be on the phone a lot, trying to bring businesses of all sizes to each town.

“It’s not easy,” Allen said. “If you bat 20 percent on that, you’re a rock star.”

There will be two more coffees, scheduled for Feb. 20 and March 19. The public is invited to the free events.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com