This year, the Governor focused on a wide array of issues with many of them having connections to the community colleges.
She hopes to provide student-focused education from PreK-12 by restricting personal electronic devices during instructional time and addressing crucial gaps in math and civics education. For us, this means to support school districts, the Department of Education will provide sample policies for the Governor's instructional time only "floor" as well as for "bell to bell" elimination of personal electronic devices. Additionally, the Governor's proposal will ensure school safety plans are updated to reflect these new policies and will require "effects of social media" training for all 6th-8th grade public school students. Additionally, she points out that civics education is an important part of preparing our students to be responsible citizens. The Governor is therefore proposing a requirement that all high school graduates pass the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Naturalization Test.
She also spoke about health care credentialing grants because, as she pointed out, Iowa needs more nurses, CNAs, and LPNs. To address this growing issue, the Governor is making available $3 million in Health Care Credentialing grants for employers to train and education people in these areas. This program provides more flexibility for employers and will help fill in-demand health careers.
Finally, Governor Reynolds will issue an executive order to set up an Iowa DOGE task force to support DOGE's efforts at the federal level and identify even more ways to reign in the cost of government at all levels.
For more information, you can view the Governor's Program and Budget Priorities, here.
Governor’s Recommendations |
FY 2025 Appropriations |
FY 2026 Proposed |
Community College State General Aid |
$235,858,161 |
$240,575,324 (2%) |
Iowa Skilled Worker & Job Creation Fund |
|
|
Skilled Workforce Tuition Grant Program |
$5,000,000 |
$5,000,000 |
GAP Tuition Assistance Program |
$2,000,000 |
$2,000,000 |
PACE Career Pathways Program |
$5,000,000 |
$4,800,000 (4%) |
Workforce Training & Economic Dev. Fund |
$15,100,000 |
$15,100,000 |
Workforce Prep. Outcome Reporting (DE) |
$200,000 |
$75,000 (62.5%) |
Workforce Prep. Outcome Reporting (IWD) |
- |
$125,000 (100%) |
ACE Infrastructure |
$6,000,000 |
$6,000,000 |
Manufacturing 4.0 |
$2,016,675 |
$2,016,675 |
Workforce Development Fund |
|
|
Apprenticeship Program |
$3,000,000 |
$3,000,000 |
260F Jobs Training Program |
$4,750,000 |
$4,750,000 |
Corrections Education |
$2,608,109 |
$3,108,109 (19%) |
Adult Literacy & ESL Programs |
$6,000,000 |
$6,000,000 |
Other Education |
|
|
K12 Schools SSA |
$3,787,626,194 |
$3,889,657,223 (2.6%) |
Regents University General |
$503,835,538 |
$513,912,249 (2%) |
Regents University Overall Total |
$570,339,250 |
$596,502,991 (4.6%) |
Private 4-Yr – Iowa Tuition Grant |
$52,707,069 |
$53,761,210 (2%) |
Iowa Workforce Development |
|
|
Offender Re-Entry Program |
$387,158 |
$393,424 (1.6%) |
Registered Apprenticeship Program |
$760,000 |
$760,000 |
Department of Education |
|
|
Summer Joint Enrollment |
$600,000 |
$600,000 |
Statewide Clearinghouse for WBL |
$300,000 |
$300,000 |
iJAG |
$9,646,450 |
$9,646,450 |
All Iowa Opportunity Scholarships |
$3,229,468 |
$3,229,468 |
FRI Last Dollar Scholarship Program |
$23,927,005 |
$23,927,005 |
Voc. Tech Tuition Grant Program |
$1,750,185 |
$1,750,185 |