Bills targeting Iowa universities could cost campuses millions

IOWA CITY — Should the Legislature pass a bill requiring the University of Iowa to establish a “School of Intellectual Freedom,” the endeavor could cost the campus $1.5 million annually to maintain — not including one-time startup costs associated with the launch.

Another measure to waive tuition and fees at Iowa’s public universities for any Iowa resident earning a perfect score on the ACT, SAT or Classic Learning Test could cost the campuses half a million dollars by 2029.

And a legislative proposal aimed at upping Iowa-resident enrollment in the UI Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry could deprive the institution of $5.7 million in out-of-state tuition income over a four-year span, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.

Those millions represent a fraction of the financial toll a spate of higher education legislation under consideration by the Iowa Legislature could have on colleges and universities in the state — which lawmakers said would be the benefactor of the bills.

“Unfortunately, University of Iowa's retention of the physician workforce in Iowa is not providing the results for the entire state that we'd like to see,” Rep. Ann Meyer, a Republican from Fort Dodge, said Wednesday during debate in the Iowa House of House File 516, which would affect the UI medical and dental colleges.

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Passing 67-28 with support from Republicans and three Democrats, the bill aims to “focus our taxpayer-funded institution on intentional efforts to grow the health care workforce of Iowa,” she said.

The Legislature for the current budget year has appropriated $573 million in education appropriations to the regent universities — which for the upcoming 2026 budget year have requested a $24.9 million increase.

Only $2.5 million of that increase would go toward general education support — to the University of Northern Iowa, specifically. The rest would go toward specific priorities across the three campuses — including $10 million for a “rural Iowa health care” initiative out of the UI.

‘Increase our physician workforce’

HF516 — should it become law — would require no less than 80 percent of students accepted into the UI College of Dentistry and College of Medicine’s doctor of medicine program be Iowa residents or enrolled in an Iowa college or university before applying.

In the 2023-2024 academic year, the UI College of Medicine admitted 153 medical students, about 70 percent of whom were Iowa residents. The dental college also reported about 70 percent of its 80 students that year were from Iowa.

Since non-resident tuition for the medical program in the 2025 term is $59,000 a year — 54 percent above the $38,000 for instate students — and non-resident dentistry students pay $84,000 a year, 43 percent above the $59,000 for resident students, the colleges can anticipate lost revenue of half a million in the first year.

With expected tuition increases, those losses would grow to $1.1 million in the second year, $1.7 million in the third year and $2.3 million in the fourth year, according to the agency’s projection.

Potential returns on this new law would come to the state, which faces a health care provider shortage, according to lawmakers like Meyer, who said UI retention rates are low — with 81 percent of Iowa natives who graduated from its med school between 2020 and 2024 leaving for residencies in other states.

About 44 percent of UIHC residents stayed in Iowa after their training in 2024, she said — saying the bill “will do a great deal to increase our physician workforce in Iowa.”

As part of the proposal, UI administrators annually would have to report where medical and dental students live the year immediately following graduation. UI Health Care, too, would report the states in which its medical residents live the year after completing their programs — broken down by residents and nonresidents.

An amendment would give priority to instate applicants for UIHC medical residencies and fellowships; require UIHC primary care residencies — like family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics and psychiatry — to offer a rural rotation; and require UIHC to offer interviews for high-demand specialties to those with Iowa connections.

Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, who opposed the legislation, said the bill would “limit the ability of our medical school to be at the top of its game”

“We need to be able to attract and retain the top talent in Iowa,” Zabner said. “I don't think anybody in this chamber who is an Iowa fan, an Iowa State fan or a UNI fan would vote to limit their ability to recruit outside talent.”

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Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, said granting a medical residency interview to any Iowan who applies, while it might sound good in theory, creates “a logistical nightmare.”

“The physicians who volunteer to do the interviews are severely limited on their time,” Matson said. “They have to choose between seeing patients and doing these critically important interviews. It could lead to not having enough time to interview highly qualified candidates who really want to come to Iowa and possibly make their lives here.”

‘Intellectual Freedom’ costs

The UI also could bear the economic brunt of House File 437 to establish a new School of Intellectual Freedom, charged with teaching and researching “the historical ideas, traditions, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society.”

The school, among its directives and responsibilities, would offer campuswide free speech and civil discourse programming; expand intellectual diversity on campus; and equip students “with the skills, habits, and dispositions of mind they need to reach their own informed conclusions on matters of social and political importance.”

The bill spells out governance of the school — requiring the Board of Regents to create a nine-member academic council to include no more than one UI employee. The council would conduct a nationwide search for a dean, who would hire at least five tenure-eligible faculty.

Assuming annual salary and benefits for the dean of $400,000, compensation of $175,000 per faculty member and $87,000 per two administrative staff members, the legislative agency projects annual costs for the school to reach $1.5 million. That includes at least $50,000 in programming expenses but excludes startup costs.

“The school may accept private and external donations,” according to the agency, noting “all funds, including state appropriations, must be used solely for direct operational costs.”

Perfect score waivers

Another measure to keep Iowa’s brightest in the state after graduation is House File 577, requiring Iowa’s public universities to give full tuition waivers and stipends of up to $10,000 a year to any resident student who earns a perfect score on either the ACT, SAT or the Classic Learning Test.

The Classic Learning Test, or CLT, has gained some traction nationally as an alternative to the ACT and SAT — especially in conservative-leaning states. Developed in 2015, the test focuses on “classic education” basics like logic, reasoning and reading.

More than 280 colleges and universities accept CLT scores as a replacement for ACT and SAT scores — including several in Iowa including Loras College in Dubuque and Northwestern College in Orange City.

Although Iowa’s public universities accept CLT scores as part of individual academic reviews and test-optional pathways for admission, regents last year declined to include it in its automatic-admission scoring system.

The system, called the Regent Admissions Index, considers grade-point average, ACT score and number of years of approved high school courses in calculating a score for automatic admission to the UI, UNI and Iowa State University.

Among the reasons a regent study team advised against including the CLT in the index is that it lacks research and evidence that its score could be used to place students in a math or English course at the public campuses.

But Republican lawmakers in advancing the bill amended it to include the CLT — arguing it is equivalent to the ACT and SAT and “all options should be available for students.”

In Iowa, 48 percent of graduating high school students took the ACT in 2024, compared with 2 percent who took the SAT and less than 1 percent who took the CLT that year, according to the agency.

Of Iowa test-takers, none received perfect scores on either the SAT or CLT, but 36 earned a perfect ACT score in 2022, 17 did so in 2023 and 16 earned a maximum 36 on the ACT in 2024.

“A total of 23 high school students are estimated to receive a perfect score each year,” according to the legislative agency, estimating about a quarter — six students — annually would attend an Iowa public university and use the waiver, reaching 24 students by 2029.

Considering the $11,283 tuition and fee rate for UI instate students, $10,786 cost for ISU residents and $9,936 rate for UNI residents, the agency projects waivers plus up to $10,000 in annual stipends could cost the campuses between $509,000 and $550,000 by 2029.

Tom Barton of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com