Here's what you should focus on in your local advocacy efforts in the coming week:
SSB 3164 dropped this week which addresses our number one priority for the year, Investing in Student Success. This bill creates a "presidents council" that is made up of all 15 community college presidents/chancellors. This council will decide on a distribution formula each year by October 31st for the succeeding budget year, by a super-majority vote of 10 presidents. If the council cannot come to a decision, the bill allows the Department of Education to select how the funds should be distributed. No appropriation was attached to the bill, so we are still waiting to see if we will get the $10 million increase in funding we're asking for to fix the inequities in funding between the community colleges within the next 2 years.
HF 2347 dropped this week which addresses our number two priority for the year, Addressing Workforce Needs. This bill requires community colleges to develop and publish a report related to the income and student loan debt of students and have CCTCs compile these reports for students wishing to further their education; while this may seem like a big burden, the Iowa Student Outcomes website provides much of this information already. The best part of the bill is that it removes CCTCs from counting towards the cap on supplementary weighting for shared operational function purposes. Currently, all 15 community college regions have at least one school district that is at or very close to its cap. This would allow for more schools access to these services if they would like.
Finally, we did register opposed to HSB 633 this week. It would require candidates running for community college boards of trustees to have a primary election. Currently, it has passed subcommittee, and we are waiting for any additional updates. It is hard enough to find individuals that would like to run for these offices; requiring them to face primaries and declare a political party would make it that much harder.
Next week is the first "funnel" deadline of the session. Most bills will need to pass out of committee in one chamber to continue to advance.
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)