The Dickey Dispatch by Senator Adrian Dickey
In week 2 of session, the most talked about issue has been the Area Education Agency (AEA) reform proposal from Governor Reynolds. First off, I don’t support the bill as it is currently drafted and I would expect some significant changes to it. I certainly understand a need for AEAs, however, I do support the conversation about looking at the existing AEA structure to see where improvements can be made.
The AEAs main objective is to assist children that have disabilities and schools and was set up in the early 1970s. In the past 50 years, the scope of the (9) AEAs in Iowa has changed dramatically. Over the past 50 years, some of the services that they provide have been mandated by the state. Like any department, I think it’s only responsible for us to take a look to see if these mandates or the services that the AEAs provide, continue to be the best use of your taxpayer dollars AND are addressing the needs of our children. After all, the overall budget each year for the (9) AEAs in Iowa is over half of a BILLION dollars! That is BILLION, B as in BIG! Being a private business owner, I tend to look at the public sector in a different view than most people that are employed in the public sector. As most business owners know, we constantly have to look at our business model to determine what works and what doesn’t. If we don’t, the doors will quickly close. However, when it comes to state agencies rarely is that view held. It seems that with any state funded agency (not just AEAs) whenever monies are allocated for a certain program or to do a certain thing, there is tremendous resistance to ever change that program or to reevaluating if its needed. That to me is very troubling and a monstrous example of what leads to government waste. Because of that, I fully support the initiative to look at what our AEAs do, what they do well, what they are doing that needs improvement, and what they’re doing that doesn’t need to be done or not done in the way that they are currently doing it.
I also support taking a serious look at the administrative structure among the (9) AEA regions. The average compensation package for the Chief Administrator in these (9) regions is over $300,000! In the Great Prarie AEA that serves SE Iowa alone, the total compensation package of the Chief Administrator for FY 2023 is $305,616, $245,809 for the HR Manager, $196,845 for the School Business Official, $236,105 for the Special Education Director, and there are (7) Zone Coordinators that make $185,977 each! There are (72) employees in the Great Prairie AEA that have compensation packages over $100,000 a year and (173) employees that have compensation packages over $90,000 a year! Now not all of those are administrative level, but I am not being a good steward with your tax dollars if we don’t at least look at the issue.
Further, to put those salaries in perspective, our governor has an annual salary of $130,000 a year. When you consider there are (9) regional AEAs with the same administrative structure and our AEA is one of the smallest regions, you can quickly see where my concern of administration bloat comes from! Surely money could be saved by combined administrative positions AND common sense compensation packages, which could lead to saving tax payer dollars and/or hiring more AEAs employees that are actually in the schools and directly assisting the students.
Moving forward in the session, there will be significant conversation on the issue. However, the narrative of, “don’t change anything, leave everything as it is,” does not resonate well with me and from a legislator’s perspective, it is a lazy position to hold. To not be constantly looking at all of the state funded agencies and asking if what they are doing is worth the taxpayer money that we send to them, is irresponsible and certainly not what the constituents in Senate District 44 have elected me to do.
A quick shout out to the Veterans of Iowa! Wednesday was Veterans Day at the Capitol and I had a GREAT time visiting with Bob Waugh and former Packwood resident Matt Wolf in learning what needs our veterans have.
On another note, I want to GREATLY thank everyone that braved the cold and caucused on Monday night. We truly are blessed to have the first in the nation status in selecting our next president. I have said for years that in Iowa, politics is OUR professional sport, and the impressive turnout that we had Monday evening showed why Iowa should continue to have that prestigious position as the first state in the nation in our presidential nominating process.
