The Rozenboom Report by Senator Ken Rozenboom – January 27, 2020

Sen. Ken Rozenboom (R-District 40)

Sen. Ken Rozenboom (R-District 40)

by Ken Rozenboom

We are two weeks into the 2020 legislative session, but this is my first newsletter. I missed most of the first week with illness and wasn’t able to get one out last week. This will bring everyone up to date.

Each year we listen to speeches from the Senate Majority Leader, the Senate President and the Senate Minority Leader on the first day of a new session. Then throughout the week we hear the Governor’s Condition of the State address, the Condition of the Judiciary, and the Condition of the Iowa National Guard.

Last Tuesday we heard Governor Reynolds talk about her plan and vision for Iowa. Specifically, she laid out her vision for additional tax reform, and presented an overview of her budget requests. She also presented the Invest in Iowa Act, a proposal that I’ll be writing much more about in upcoming weeks. Her speech included a lot of major topics such as child care, expanding the workforce and ensuring that Iowa children are receiving the best education we provide. We are looking forward to working with both Governor Reynolds and the House of Representatives on these important issues, and creating a sustainable budget.

We are well into the discussion about funding for Iowa K-12 schools. Often, I am challenged to “fully fund education.” But when I ask what that term means I’m usually met with silence or with a general comment or two about how Iowa doesn’t spend enough on education. I believe the common-sense way to define the term “fully funding” is this: The state keeps the promises it made during the budgeting process in January for that fiscal year. Students, parents, teachers, administrators, and property taxpayers all depend on the state of Iowa fully funding the promises it makes.

Since taking over the majority in 2017, Senate Republicans have fully funded every dollar we have promised to K-12 education. Over the last three budget years, an additional $263.75 million was promised to K-12 schools. Our schools received every last dollar of that increased funding, every promise was kept, and not a single cut has been made. Additionally, millions of new dollars have been allocated for concurrent enrollment and to address inequities in both per pupil and transportation funding.

In fact, the last time K-12 education was cut was when Chet Culver was governor and Democrats controlled both branches of the Iowa Legislature. Schools were promised an additional $393.9 million over four years, only to have those promises underfunded by a total of $459 million. Not only were the promises of increased funding not kept, but education spending was actually cut by $65 million in that four-year period.

In the coming weeks expect to hear a lot of noise about cutting and fully funding education. However, one certainty will remain, Senate Republicans will continue promise what we can deliver, and we will deliver what we promise.

As the legislative session continues and we start to take up these and other important issues, I urge you to contact me with comments, questions, and the issues important to you.

Posted by on Jan 27 2020. Filed under Local News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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