Rural schools pay more, get fewer services under new Iowa education law

CEDAR RAPIDS — Even though two rural school districts in Linn County are cutting back on the services they receive from the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, their share of the cost this academic year is going up roughly 30 percent under a new state law.

At the same time, though, costs to the Cedar Rapids Community School District — the second largest district in the state — will go down by as much as $1 million, even keeping the same level of services.

“The bill producers winners and losers financially,” said John Speer, chief administrator of Grant Wood AEA, based in Cedar Rapids. “Our system was set up to give the AEA a pool of money to equitably help districts achieve their goals and receive the services they need.

“The five largest districts in the AEA will be able to buy all the services they’ve ever had with us, and they’ll save money. Our smaller districts will see less services simply because their flow-through dollars won’t support the level of services they’ve had in the past,” Speer said.

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The state’s nine area education agencies oversee education of Iowa students with disabilities and offer media instructional materials and consulting services to schools and students in their boundaries.

Asserting that Iowa special education students were performing more poorly that those in some other states, Gov. Kim Reynolds pitched a major overhaul of the AEAs but earlier this year ended up signing a stripped-down compromise, House File 2612, that she said would improve transparency over the cost of AEA services.

Previously, federal and state special education funding went directly to the agencies. AEAs also receive property tax funding for media services and other education services for schools in their region.

Once the new law is fully implemented in its second year, 10 percent of state funding for special education services will remain with districts for them to use, while 90 percent will continue to flow directly to the AEAs.

Also in the second year, all state funding for other education services and media services will go directly to schools — which could use that money with AEAs or get services from another entity.

For the first year of the law, covering the upcoming academic year, school districts will receive 60 percent of the funds for media services and education services that used to go to the AEAs. They can choose to use that with the AEAs, or with an outside party, and it can be spent on any general fund purpose.

Grant Wood AEA serves a seven-county region including Linn and Johnson counties, and assists students with disabilities and delivers general education and media services to educators.

Speer said that when the money came directly to the AEAs, the agencies operated “like a buffet” for offering services.

“As a customer, you could really ask for almost anything you wanted, and we could deliver. Now, districts have to be really precise about what you order, when you order it, when you want it and how much it costs,” he said.

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Leisa Breitfelder, the shared superintendent of North Linn and Central City school districts, said the districts have had to let go of Grant Wood AEA services that support the implementation of their social studies and science curriculum and social and emotional learning.

Other services like literacy, math and early childhood consultants are greatly diminished, Breitfelder said.

“The AEA was able to provide a specialist in every single one of those categories. Now, they still have that available, but everything comes at a higher charge, and we just don’t have the funding from the state to cover it,” Breitfelder said.

North Linn is paying almost 132 percent of its total allocation of $73,434 — including the 40 percent of its share going directly to the AEA this year — for media and educational services through Grant Wood AEA. Central City is paying 127 percent of its total allocation of $57,585.

The districts are using other funding streams for professional development and funds from the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy — which can be used for technology purchases, among other things — to make ends meet.

“All of this is coming from the state level, and (Grant Wood AEA) had to follow through with what they’ve been directed to do,” Breitfelder said. “It’s extremely sad for our kids because they’re the ones who are going to be impacted by these decisions.”

In previous years, Grant Wood AEA was able to send literacy and math curriculum consultants a few times a month to meet with North Linn and Central City teachers. Now, the districts will pay for only 17 days of service.

The same goes for the early childhood consultant who would meet with teachers monthly in the past. Now, they will come only four times this academic year to work with teachers on analyzing data and working to improve instruction.

The districts hired a new shared director of school improvement to help fill in the gaps where AEA services are no longer an option, Breitfelder said.

The school districts have a combined student enrollment of about 1,000.

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In the Cedar Rapids district — which serves about 16,000 students — few services provided by Grant Wood AEA are changing, said Karinne Tharaldson, the district’s chief academic officer.

“Our district will actually save money because we are so large and many services the AEA provides we already have on site,” Tharaldson said. “We’re able to retain some of those funds we’ve never had before and still get the highest quality of services.”

Fewer AEA staff to serve schools

Speer said Grant Wood AEA is in better shape financially than he would have predicted earlier this year when the new law was passed.

The uncertainty of a new law, however, led to about 100 of Grant Wood AEA’s 520 employees voluntarily leaving. About 20 of these were retirements, 25 people left from media and educational services and 56 people in special education left. Grant Wood AEA hired 15 people to staff its special education services, still leaving it short-staffed.

“Will we be able to be as futuristic as we’ve been in the past?” Speer wondered

“If we’re allowed to implement this system the way the bill has laid out and we’re left alone to do that, I do think the system will survive and be a strong system,” he said. “If the system is continually changed yearly, then I can’t guarantee any sort of consistency. I hope the Legislature has made the changes they thought they needed to make.”

Becky Thorson, a math consultant at Grant Wood AEA, said what she loves about her job is providing professional learning and coaching to educators to improve student outcomes.

But there’s a lot of unknowns this upcoming school year, especially for rural school districts that likely can’t afford the same amount of services they were receiving before the law changed, Thorson said.

“I’m still looking forward to serving my districts in the best capacity we’re able to under this service-for-fee model,” Thorson said. “I’ve made peace in my mind that we have to accept the change. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with it or think it’s what’s in the best interest of students.”

Erikka Vosmek and Ann Langenfeld are school improvement consultants with Grant Wood AEA. They often help districts implement school improvement plans that Langenfeld said not only helps improve learning outcomes, but lifts up families, teachers and the community.

For example, Langenfeld worked last year with a small rural school district on creating a five-year plan to improve teacher instruction.

Vosmek said she hopes “will still have access” to all the AEA services they need even as they have to be more selective because of the cost that smaller districts face.

“The thing that has us a little uneasy is, will they be able to afford to continue the work?” she asked.

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