Here's what you should focus on in your local advocacy efforts in the coming week:
We survived funnel week! What is funnel week you may ask? Funnel week occurs the 6th week of session and requires any Senate bills and resolutions to be voted out of Senate committee and any House bills and resolutions to be voted out of House committee. There is one small caveat, however. Any bills that were originally assigned to Appropriations or Ways and Means Committees are safe from being what legislators call "killed". This is always a high-stress time for both legislators and lobbyists as the bills; you want any bills unfavorable to you to "die" and any that are favorable to "survive."
On a positive note, our two main priorities were able to pass out of Committee and "survived" for the meantime. HF 2347 requires community colleges to develop and publish a report related to the income and student loan debt of students who have completed an associate degree program, or any program that leads to a postsecondary certificate or other competency-based credential, offered by the community college. If a school district employs a CCTC, the CCTC is responsible for providing copies of these reports and compilations of reports. CCTCs are defined as licensed school counselors or appropriately trained individuals responsible for providing direct services to students, parents, families, schools, and postsecondary institutions to support college preparation and postsecondary success, such as college preparation, financial aid processing, and transition to postsecondary institution enrollment. Additionally, the supplementary weighting associated with a shared operational function in the area of a CCTC shall not count toward the maximum amount of additional weighting for budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2024.
SF 2373 defines "presidents council" as a council that is convened by the Iowa association of community college trustees that is made up of the presidents of the community colleges and the chancellors of the community colleges who serve as the chief executive officers of such community colleges. The bill modifies Code to provide that moneys appropriated by the general assembly from the general fund of the state to the department for community college purposes for general state financial aid for a budget year shall be allocated to each community college by the department pursuant to the terms of a distribution formula approved by the president's council. If the president's council fails to approve a distribution formula, the bill requires the department to establish the distribution formula for general staid aid to the community colleges for the succeeding budget year. This bill would apply to budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2025.
For more info, our Bill Tracker is up-and-running and more details will be available here: 2024 Bill Tracker | Community Colleges for Iowa (ccforiowa.org)