Kim Reynolds’ Education Bill Would Cost Schools Extra Millions

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “parental rights” education bill could cost Iowa public schools as much as $62.3 million over a five-day period, according to a fiscal note from the nonpartisan Iowa Legislative Services Agency (LSA).

Among the measures included in Reynolds’ sweeping education bill are book censorship, prohibiting schools from calling certain students by their preferred name without express written consent, and it removes teaching about AIDS, HPV, and the HPV vaccine from the health curriculum.

However, the LSA projects that most of those measures won’t have a fiscal impact. The multi-million dollar costs come into play under the bill’s “transparency measure” which requires schools to publish a “list of all materials that will be used to teach students in each class in the school district, sortable by subject area, grade level, and teacher.”

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Schools would be required to update these lists at least twice a semester or at the beginning of a trimester where applicable, according to the bill. That task would fall on the teachers themselves, which could take them out of the classroom or require additional hours.

The LSA fiscal note breaks down how much this proposal would cost per day based on the average Iowa full-time teacher salary and the cost of a substitute teacher at $160 dollars per day: 

Screenshot of LSA fiscal note

On the low end, it would cost $12.4 million over a working day for every full-time Iowa teacher to compile the materials necessary for publishing or a little more than $6 million if a district opts to use substitutes to cover those teachers’ classes while they work on their lists. 

On the high end, it would cost $62.3 million for full-time teachers to do this work over five days or about $30.2 million for substitutes to cover their classes over the same period. 

The LSA also notes these estimates aren’t approximate for multiple reasons including:

• “Each teacher will require time to organize and prepare materials for posting. The time a teacher will need is based on a number of factors, such that a reliable average cannot be estimated.”
• “The cost of hiring additional contract hours for teachers is variable across the State. Many school districts pay a per diem, which is prorated to the teacher’s salary.”
• “Dual enrollment and online classwork are not included in the requirements.”
• “It is unclear whether the requirements to posting of materials would apply to online classes, concurrent enrollment classes, or other coursework provided through a higher education institution.”
• “Additional permissions and costs may be required for the posting of materials that are from course providers outside of the school district.”
•  The requirement of the bill to make information sortable requires an interactive database, which may be beyond the current capabilities of school district software and systems.”
• “Additional administrative costs may be required to support the software and systems and support internal and external users. These costs cannot be estimated and would vary by school district.”

The requirements and associated expenses of Reynolds’ education bill apply to public and charter schools but exclude private schools, which will soon be receiving a large influx of Iowa taxpayer dollars. Earlier this year, Reynolds’ signed a private-school voucher bill that will funnel about $878 million in taxpayer dollars to private schools over its first four years alone.  

by Ty Rushing
03/20/23

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