Lawmakers, regents respond Iowa House’s proposed education funding cut

The House Appropriations Committee on Monday passed a measure to cut education funding by about $8.5 million and pull nearly $13 million from the University of Iowa as part of a new 'performance-based funding model.”

But Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter said he remains hopeful for a different outcome.

'This is step one in the House, and there are other steps in the process,” Rastetter told The Gazette on Tuesday. 'We are going to continue to lobby for the full regents legislative request. Why would we speculate on the negative when we are in the middle of the process?”

The House measure, which commits $977.6 million in higher education appropriations, is below current levels and a higher education spending plan approved last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Senate measure included $16.6 million in additional funds for regent institutions and supported a tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates for a third straight year. The House proposal denies the 1.75 percent funding increase to support a tuition freeze and shifts $12.9 million away from the UI to be divided between Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa.

That shift aligns with a Board of Regents-proposed funding change that ties 60 percent of state support to resident enrollment. But, as part of its funding proposal, the board asked lawmakers to backfill the $12.9 million to hold the UI unharmed in the model's first year - and the House measure does not include those dollars.

Rastetter said in a statement the board will continue to work with the General Assembly to ensure the inflationary increase and the backfill for the UI. He also thanked the House for its support of performance-based funding.

Performance based funding, he said in that statement, 'will provide more transparency and equity across the three institutions while also being more accountable to the taxpayers of Iowa.”

But Regent Bob Downer on Tuesday said the $12.9 million backfill is paramount to the funding model.

'What was done yesterday was not part of the resolution that I supported, which was specifically predicated upon the backfill,” Downer told The Gazette.

Redistributing state dollars using the new funding metrics without the $12.9 million backfill could hurt more than the UI, Downer said.

'To take that away, I think, just exacerbates the problems,” he said. 'I think it could have a serious defect upon the Iowa economy …

. I think this is very ill advised.”

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, said the full Senate is scheduled to take up its higher education funding proposal Wednesday, and he expects it will pass. That proposal increases:

l UI appropriations by 1.8 percent, or $4 million

l ISU appropriations by 2.9 percent, or $5.2 million

l UNI appropriations by 7.8 percent, or $7 million.

Although it doesn't use the metrics proposed by the regents, Dvorsky said, it is 'performance based” in that it acknowledges the high percent of in-state students at UNI, represents growing enrollment at ISU, and maintains support for the UI - with additional funding for the tuition freeze.

'We fund them in a responsible manner that reflects what the three very different universities are doing,” Dvorsky said, 'and we don't cause this war between the privates and the community colleges and the regents.”

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, called the House proposal 'destructive and counterproductive” in that it pits the universities against each other.

'I think the Senate's plan recognizes that all three institutions have unique needs,” he said.

But Regent Larry McKibben on Tuesday said he's supportive of the House's recommendation to implement the performance-based funding model.

'That is the real positive to come out of yesterday,” he said.

McKibben said communication from his contacts in the Legislature has him confident the board will receive broad support for the inflationary increase and related tuition freeze.

'I guess, to me, the glass is always half full, and I'm going to take what we got yesterday with the strong support for performance based funding,” he said, adding that he's cautiously optimistic the board will get the $12.9 million backfill as well.

'That's a key component to make performance-based funding workable for all three universities,” he said. 'And we are going to keep working for that.”

UI officials declined to comment on the House proposal and its potential impact. An ISU spokesman said state support of performance based funding would help the institute meet its growing needs - enrollment has jumped 30 percent in recent years.

But Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said the performance-based funding model supported through this week's House proposal is not the same plan the Board of Regents approved.

'To drive it to a zero-sum scenario where some win and some lose is not a good message to send about Iowa's education process, and it pits the universities against each other,” said Danielson, whose district includes UNI. 'That is not what the original performance-based funding model did.

'The House completely turned it upside down, and that's not something I can support.”