Iowa House GOP pushes ahead on school home rule

DES MOINES - If home rule for schools is as good of an idea as majority Republicans say, then House Democrats think it ought to be in the Iowa Constitution.

In the House Education Committee, they sought to substitute a resolution calling for home rule for schools for House File 26, which would do the same through statute instead.

Floor manager Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, resisted the switch, saying he wants to give schools broader power to make more decisions as soon as next year. But under the constitutional amendment process, the next Legislature would need to approve the measure again before it went to the voters.

'Home rule is something my caucus believes in,” he said about the House GOP. 'It's something we campaigned on.”

Although he said he respects the idea of a home rule constitutional amendment, Rogers said approving his bill as a statute would allow lawmakers and local school officials see how it works while planning a constitutional amendment.

'Let's begin the process … and trust in local control,” he said.

But not all Republicans believe in local control, argued Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids.

The House Local Government Committee is looking, for instance, to pre-empt cities and counties from setting local minimum wages and regulating the use of plastic bags.

The substitution failed 9-13 on a party-line vote.

When the committee returned to HF 26, Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, predicted that if home rule is adopted in code rather than in the constitution, lawmakers 'will be back every year taking away power from school boards because you didn't like what they did.”

Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, asked for a fiscal note on how much revenue districts could realize if they raised their property tax levies to the maximum.

HF 26 was approved 13-9. In the Senate, a subcommittee took up a resolution Monday to add school home rule to the constitution, but took no action.

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