Ed committee chair Sinclair says K-12 transportation needs fix

Touring a new classroom addition at PCM High School in Monroe on Dec. 18, Iowa Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, knows it takes money to make building improvements like this happen.

At least 60 percent of the bills the Senate education committee chair and Senate Republican majority whip will help draft or oversee in the 2019 legislative session will deal with education.

The Senate District 14 Republican is entering her seventh year representing Clarke, Decatur, Wayne and Lucas counties, as well as with most of Marion County and the southeast quarter of Jasper County, when the state legislature convenes at that state capitol for its 2019 session on Jan 14.

During an interview with Newton Daily News following her PCM tour, Sinclair said she has already drafted a shell bill to fund Iowa's K-12 public schools in 2020. The bill will include more funding for one of Sinclair's priorities — inequities in transportation costs.

In 2018, the state reported disparities in state funding for K-12 transportation versus actual cost per pupil as high as $170 per student.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported in March, some Iowa school districts paid as much as $900 per student to bus kids to school. This problem is particularly troublesome in rural Iowa, like much of Sinclair's district. On average, Iowa pubic schools spend $315 per student on transportation.

In the 2018 session, Iowa lawmakers approved one-time relief of $11.2 million to 140 school districts suffering from the highest disparities in transportation costs. Sinclair hopes the fiscal year 2020 budget will fix the problem permanently.

"Ultimately, I'd like to eliminate that altogether," she said.

But how much funding Sinclair's education spending bill will hold for public schools in 2020 remains to be seen.

The current fiscal year saw a 1 percent increase in state supplemental aid to Iowa's K-12 public schools — a $32 million increase over FY 2018. Iowa's Revenue Estimating Conference which met last week projects the total amount of money the state is expected to take in will increase this year by 1.8 percent. Education makes up 43 percent of the state's $ 7 billion budget.

Sinclair said she still doesn't know how much money she'll have to work with to set a K-12 budget, but indicated she'd like to see a bigger increase in SSA for 2020. The education committee chair is, however, "making no grantees."

Sinclair and many of her Republican Senate colleagues are cautious to use the state's remaining money from the current fiscal year to fund any future recurring funding priorities, even education.

“It’s a balancing act of how much do we use in that ending fund balance for ongoing expenses which we don’t like to do,” she said.

The Allerton Republican called Democratic claims that the state can fulfill a 4 percent increase in SSA "disingenuous," when some of that increase could have to come through local school districts' property tax levy.

"(The Republican majority) funded the amount we gave," Sinclair said. "Historically, a level would be set and by the end of the year, not all the funding would go through. There wouldn’t be enough money, so school districts would be forced to levy that through school property taxes.”

If you ask the her what she thinks of the Democrats' criticism on shrinking allowable growth for public schools in recent years, Sinclair will tell you exactly what she thinks.

“But, you know what, we’ve funded it every freakin’ year," Sinclair said.

Higher education

As new spending on K-12 education has slowed, Iowa's three state universities — University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa — have had to deal with budget cuts. State lawmakers have asked the presidents of the three schools to make mid-year cuts during the last two legislative sessions. This has decreased general education appropriation at the Iowa Regent universities by $35 million, the Gazette reported in November.

As lawmakers get ready to return to Des Moines in January, the university presidents are asking for an increase to ensure no more programs are cut and to keep tuition affordable. For student financial aid, the UI and ISU presidents both asked for a $7 million increase in general education support. UNI is looking for a $4 million bump.

Due to their recent hits, Sinclair said the university presidents' $18 million total request for more money is warranted.

“It’s probably reasonable because they’ve seen actual dollar cuts," Sinclair said. "I think in a time where we have the ability to make some of that up, where we’ve had to hit hard in the past couple of budget cycles, sure, I think it’s reasonable.”

Sinclair is quick to remind that the Iowa Tuition Grant — a state-funded scholarship for Iowa residents who commit to attend one of the state's private colleges — also took a hit during funding reductions. Sinclair pointed to private colleges' role in educating mostly Iowa residents and taking infrastructure pressure off the Regent schools, particularly UI and ISU which Sinclair characterizes as "bursting at the seems" and "nearing capacity."

Sinclair said she's also received request from Iowa's community colleges amounting to $10 million in increases for FY 2020. If the education committee receives $125 million in requests for total education funding increases, Sinclair said those higher education numbers really start to matter to the bottom line.

"That eats away at it pretty quickly," Sinclair said.

Still, the Republican Senator claims she will not prioritize one higher education component over another in 2019.

“All three of those post-secondary ed pieces have received cuts and we need to make sure we’re working to restore them,” she said.

Medicaid

As reports continue to come in on issues with Iowa's privatized Medicaid system — run since 2016 by three Managed Care Organizations, more debate on the Iowa House and Senate floors is likely in 2019.

Iowa healthcare providers have been concerned about long delays in receiving payments from the MCOs and reduced duration and availability of services to Iowans covered by Medicaid — a population that is typically low income and more at risk for mental health issues and substance abuse.

Although the legislature did pass some oversight measures on the MCOs during the 2018 session, Sinclair, who supported privatizing the system, said there is more debate to come on Medicaid.

Returning Medicaid to a fully public, state-run program is a non-starter for Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sinclair said.

"No. The governor’s been clear on that," Sinclair said. "She won’t support anything, and it would take her support to pass anything that would take us back to a fully public program."

Sinclair said she would be "supportive of doing the things that are necessary" to fix Iowa's privatized Medicaid system, but could not give specifics of what reform might look like.

The senator did suggest a "hybrid model" with a not-for-profit company acting as an intermediary to manage services could be an attractive alternative to the MCOs. She pointed to Colorado, a state that has been using a nonprofit privatized system for several years.

Whatever the fix, Sinclair conceded rural clinics and medical providers have been the hardest hit by delayed and lower service reimbursement payments from the MCOs, which directly impacts her district.

“We can’t just let private companies dictate to us the level of payment and the level of care that folks are getting," she said. "There are small providers who have gone out of business because they couldn’t cash flow the cumbersome system we found ourselves in.

“That’s terrible because that means people aren’t getting care, that means people are out of work," Sinclair continued. "That means, especially in rural Iowa — the vitality of rural Iowa is caught up in people being able to live, work and stay in their home.”

Outgoing State Auditor Mary Mosiman released a statement in November that said the MCO-based system has saved the $ 5 billion Medicaid program $141 million annually since it went into effect nearly two years ago. This a more precise number than the estimated $47-$234 million the state said was saved earlier this year.

Despite possible disparities with late-provider reimbursements, Sinclair said Mosiman's numbers show the program, although flawed, does have value for Iowa.

“That's nothing to sneeze at. Is it all because providers were getting reimbursement or because individuals weren’t getting essential care? I don’t think all of it. I think there are some real savings. Some of the pieces of that teaching people how to live and be healthier, I think that does help.”

Contact Mike Mendenhall at 641-792-3121 Ext 6530 mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com