State Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour).

This week was the beginning of debate in the House. We are prioritizing House bills that need to be sent over to the Senate before the next funnel date in March.

On Tuesday the House passed a bill that I filed and floor managed on behalf of a constituent, House File 2328, by a party line vote of 62-33. This bill creates a new duty for the Environmental Protection Commission concerning the capacity rating of campground septic systems. Currently, campgrounds with a septic system are required to meet a 75 gallon per day per campsite rating, an absurdly high number. The bill provides that the sizing capacity on campgrounds be the higher of either 25 gallons per day for each camping site using the septic system, or the peak monthly water usage divided by the number of days and the number of campsites. This calculation avoids the “one size fits all” mentality of the original requirement.

I filed this bill because privately owned campgrounds, including those in my district, are running into difficulty transferring ownership because the current DNR rating specification of 75 gallons is much too high, and thus requiring expensive upgrades to a septic system to complete the transfer. This bill should ensure that these family-oriented private campgrounds can continue to operate well into the future without undue expense. All House Democrats voted against this bill, favoring onerous government regulations over the common-sense approach used in the bill.

Thursday, the House passed House File 2613 to increase Supplemental State Aid (SSA), the funding for public school districts, by 3%. This increase amounts to $146.7 million more than Fiscal Year 2024, and a total of about $3,814.2 million to School Foundation Aid. It would bring per pupil funding to $7,864 per student, an increase of $229 over FY 2024. This number must be agreed upon with the Senate and the Governor, who originally proposed a 2.5% increase. We feel that 3% is the right number to support our public schools.

The Governor’s original AEA reform proposal has been set aside, but we have continued discussions with stakeholders to draft our own legislation in the House to improve outcomes and oversight of the AEA’s. The goal of our bill is long term improvement of special education outcomes. We believe it does this by creating a task force to review the current system and look for areas for improvement, and giving more flexibility to the school districts on how to spend their money. It also includes additional oversight of the AEA’s. We are continuing to take feedback from Iowans in the crafting of this bill. This week, we held a public hearing where we heard from parents, students, teachers, AEA employees, superintendents and more. One goal of our bill is for there to be no disruption to special education services.

It’s important to note that this bill does not terminate any employees of the AEA’s, nor does it prohibit the AEAs ability to perform any of the services they do now.

What the bill does do is: it creates a legislative task force to review the AEA system and make recommendations; it ties the salary of each AEA’s chief executive to the average salary of the superintendents of the districts they cover (currently, the 9 AEA chiefs each make around $300,000 annually); it puts a new, small, division of the Department of Education in charge of professional development; it gives the DOE true oversight over the AEA’s budgets.

Further, the money devoted to special education will stop at the school district, but school districts will be required to contract with the AEAs to provide those special ed services. This gives the school districts added control over the services they use. This bill also gives school districts more control of media services and education services money over time. Many districts may continue to use the AEAs for all services. However, if they can provide those same services for less money, or more effectively through other means, they will have that flexibility.

Currently, the AEA bill has one provision that is a deal breaker for me, it eliminates the ability of school districts to engage in Operational Sharing of staff with an AEA. This provision is counterproductive, many of the school districts share staff with the AEA and there are few other options for how to fill those positions. If this provision is not amended out, I will be a NO on the bill.

As always, I look forward to seeing you at the capitol, or in the district.

Dean Fisher, a Republican from Montour, represents District 53 in the Iowa House of Representatives.