Wolf’s Wonderings
The fourth week of the Session has been fast paced with many bills coming out of Subcommittees. Here are the high points of the week:
Bills of Interest Discussed in Subcommittees
SF2154 (formerly SSB3019) – CTE Instructor Qualifications: The bill was amended and unanimously passed in the Subcommittee and the Education Committee and will now be placed on the Senate Debate Calendar. The amendment adds: “or a baccalaureate degree in any area of study with a minimum of 18 semester hours in the career and technical field of instruction in which the instructor is teaching classes”. Please thank the Senate Education Committee members at their local forums this week.
Amy Sinclair, Chair
Chris Cournoyer, Vice Chair
Herman C. Quirmbach, Ranking
Jerry Behn
Claire Celsi
Jeff Edler
Eric Giddens
Craig Johnson
Tim Kraayenbrink
Mark S. Lofgren
Ken Rozenboom
Jackie Smith
Annette Sweeney
Zach Wahls
Brad Zaun
SSB3077/HSB607 – Future Ready Iowa “2.0”: The Commerce Subcommittees for both Chambers met on Thursday. There was lively discussion in both meetings. Many were in support of the steps being taken in the childcare provisions, and some concerns were raised regarding funding issues related to the K12 computer science provision. Community College representatives expressed their support of the bill except for Division III, which creates a new Iowa Workforce Development Pilot Program for a Workforce Diploma. This Pilot is seen to be duplicative of the current Adult High School Completion efforts. In response to the information provided through the Adult Education flier (attached), several speakers in both meetings talked about the number of Iowans who are not currently being served who do not have high school diplomas. That number differed in each meeting. To clarify, the variety of numbers being discussed, please see the following data regarding Iowans without a high school diploma, by age group.
Age Grade Levels Male Female Total Age Percentages
18-24 Less than 9th grade 2249 1760
18-24 9th to 12th grade, no diploma 17379 12054 33,442 18-24 23.15%
25-34 Less than 9th grade 4895 4050
25-34 9th to 12th grade, no diploma 10993 7355 27,293 25-34 18.90%
35-44 Less than 9th grade 5666 5609
35-44 9th to 12th grade, no diploma 9672 6516 27,463 35-44 19.01%
45-64 Less than 9th grade 11195 9523
45-64 9th to 12th grade, no diploma 20614 14915 56,247 45-64 38.91%
Total 82663 61782 144,445 100.00%
2017 datasets provided by data.census.gov. Note, this data does not provide the reasons for non-completion, e.g.: health impairment, incarceration, language barriers, etc.
In addition, attached is a spreadsheet which breaks out these numbers by county.
Bills of Interest Filed this Week
HF2239 – Minor’s ability to access obscene material.
SSB3113 – Amendment to Iowa Constitution to lower voting age to 18.
SF2161 – Prohibit regents and community colleges from adopting rules to prevent weapons on campus.
One Last Thought – The 2020 Iowa Caucuses
Every two years Iowans gather in homes, schools, churches, and community centers for their respective political parties to discuss political issues. Those gathered discuss a variety of topics that are impacting their lives; select delegates to county/district conventions; develop party platform planks for state and federal legislation; and on a four-year cycle, they vet who they would like to see as their party’s presidential candidate. But most of all Iowa’s caucuses build community. The 2020 caucuses, despite the reporting glitch, had several positives: more Iowans participated than ever before; the statewide economy benefited; and the sense of Community was broadened.
IACCT Legislative Consultant Laurie Wolf: (515) 669-0194 or lawolf@iacct.com.