Reynolds’ agenda is a mixed bag

Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled some good ideas during her Condition of the State address this week. But her agenda also raises some serious questions.

We appreciate the governor’s to plan raise pay for both beginning and experienced public school teachers. Reynolds would spend $96 million next fiscal year to boost beginning salaries to $50,000 annually and to $62,000 for teachers who have 12 years of experience or more. The governor also would put $10 million toward merit-based bonuses.

Reynolds called for expanded literacy programs in schools based on phonics, which we support.

Reynolds announced a restructuring of Iowa’s behavioral health delivery system, replacing the current array of regions with seven districts while dispersing $20 million from Iowa’s opioid legal settlement to get the new system going.

And in a long-overdue move, Reynolds said Iowa will expand Medicaid-funded postpartum care for new mothers from the current 60 days to a full year. And the governor renewed her call to change state law and make it legal to by birth control over the counter.

But the benefits of other initiatives floated by the governor are unclear.

Take Reynolds’ plan to reduce services performed by Area Education Agencies to strictly special education assistance. Currently, AEAs provide services ranging from technology and professional development to teacher mental health training and curriculum assessments. Losing those services could hit rural districts particularly hard.

School districts, under the governor’s plan, could spend per-pupil dollars currently earmarked for AEAs in any way they see fit. AEAs would no longer be managed independently. Reynolds would spend $20 million creating an office within the Iowa Department of Education.

Reynolds said she’d been troubled by low test scores among students with disabilities. But without more detail on how such a sweeping change will happen, it’s difficult at this point to draw a conclusion about the full scope of the governor’s motives, how the transition would take place and how would rural districts fund lost services.

And, as we’ve argued before, the governor’s continued quest for more and more tax cuts puts other state priorities — including education, state universities, mental health and environmental protection — in budgetary jeopardy. Despite that, the governor is calling for an accelerated push toward a 3.5% flat income tax, carrying a price tag of $3.8 billion over the next five years. And, once again, the governor is spending far less than state law allows in FY2025, resulting a nearly $1 billion surplus.

After handing out tax cuts that mostly benefit wealthy earners, it is past time to make investments that benefit all Iowans.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com