Republicans make waves with two new bills

Republicans in the Senate made waves this week with two bills in particular, the bottle bill and school choice.

SF 2378 made history by making a simple change to our current bottle bill that most hopefully will agree. If we are going to keep the bottle bill in the future, then we must make sure redemption centers are profitable. This bill increases the handling fee from $.01 to $.03. This is a long overdue pay increase redemption centers need to not only stay open, but now have more incentive to create new redemption centers across the state. Currently, there are only about 60 redemption centers that are still open. The other part of this bill is that it allows grocery stores to opt out of having to redeem cans. This part of the bill was a little contentious with some legislators, but overall most people agree that grocery stores are not the most sanitary place to redeem cans and that by them opting out, this will drive more business to the redemption centers where their sole purpose is to collect cans. This bill has been around for about 40 years. The Senate’s proposal if enacted into law would be the first change to the bottle bill since it’s implementation. This is another example of the Senate being bold to get another much-needed reform accomplished. 

This week, the Iowa Senate passed SF 2369 to empower parents and give them the ability to direct their children’s education. The first major policy initiative in the bill is commonly referred to as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” It guarantees parents have access to the curriculum, library materials, guest speakers, and other information related to the public education of their children. Sexually explicit material is more commonly available in public school and parents are becoming aware of it. Many parents want a clear and consistent path to address that material with the school. This bill provides that path. If the concerns parents have regarding their student’s education are not adequately addressed by the school, then parents need choice in education.

The second major part of the bill gives parents that choice in education. Up to 10,000 Iowa students would be able to utilize a scholarship to pay for private school education if their family income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level or they have an individualized education plan (IEP). This proposal gives low- and middle-income parents in Iowa the same school choice options wealthy parents have. With this bill all Iowa families will have access to school choice, not just parents who can afford it.

The state portion of education funding is approximately $7,500 per student. In this bill, more than $5,000 of that amount is available in a scholarship for a student for private school education. The remainder is allocated to a special fund to support increased operational sharing functions. Operational sharing is a tool used by many rural districts in Iowa to share administrators and other leadership functions with nearby districts to meet the needs of the rural school at a reduced cost. This was the major change to the original bill.

Please ask your Representatives to join the Senate and our popular governor in finishing the job to make these much needed reforms law.