Senate Democrats vow to battle over education

DES MOINES - House File 45, which sailed out of the Iowa House on a 60-40 vote late Wednesday, landed with a thud in the Senate on Thursday morning.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, promised to seek common ground with Republicans on finding cost-saving measures, but he promised that Senate Democrats, who hold a 26-24 majority, “will put up a significant battle to save preschool.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said he expects a dialogue on preschool, but he predicted that “preschool as it exists will change.”

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, met with his House counterpart, Rep. Scott Raecker, R-Urbandale, to discuss the three-year, $500 million de-appropriations bill. He called HF 45 a “starting point.”

“There are probably some other areas we can work together on,” Dvorsky said, such as House Republicans' plan to add $25 million to the current year's budget for mental health services. “But there are other sections we are not interested in.”

That was clear from comments by Senate Education Committee Chairman Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, that HF 45 is a “devastating blow to education in this state.”

Cuts to regent institutions' funding - which has already been reduced by 25 percent in recent years - “would serve to reduce the quality, raise class size, limit course offerings, possibly reduce the number of majors available, perhaps cause the collapse of whole departments,” the Iowa State University faculty member said.

“If those additional cuts were implemented, it would put our research universities on a course to second-class status, and I think that would be very devastating to the aspirations of young people in the state of Iowa,” he said.

Dvorsky doesn't plan to take any action on HF 45 until after Branstad delivers his budget message next week.

Branstad is likely to offer “bold proposals” in the address to a joint session of the Legislature, including a two-year budget with five-year projections and an emphasis on job creation, Paulsen said.

“We cannot continue government as usual,” Branstad said.