Much of the conversation Friday surrounded issues affecting K-12 schools like state supplemental aid and open enrollment.
FORT MADISON — No bills have been debated yet in the Iowa Legislature, but state Rep. Jerry Kearns still had many questions to address at Friday's legislative forum.
Held at The Palms Supper Club in Fort Madison and hosted by Fort Madison Partners executive director Tim Gobble, about 20 people attended the hour-long discussion to hear from their lawmakers as they return home from Des Moines for the weekend.
Sen. Rich Taylor was unable to attend because of a death in the family, and Rep. Dave Heaton had a prior commitment.
Much of the talk Friday centered on issues affecting kindergarten- through 12th-grade schools in the area, particularly state funding and open enrollment.
Gov. Kim Reynolds, in her Condition of the State address Jan. 9, proposed giving K-12 public schools $54 million in supplemental state aid for fiscal year 2019.
Republicans, who control the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives, have said the school funding bill will be one of the first they pass this year. Last year, the legislation was signed into law in February.
The ability of students to transfer between school districts, known as open enrollment, was discussed in depth because of the negative impact it can have on school budgets.
Fort Madison Superintendent Erin Slater said about 200 children open enrolled out of her district during the 2016-17 school year, resulting in a loss for the district at $6,500 for each student that left.
Slater said based on results of a survey she sent last fall to parents who enrolled their children in another district, the reasons largely were logistical — changing schools to be closer to a parent's workplace, for example.
"Very few were about programming, and those programming ones we continue to address," said Slater, who was selected as superintendent in 2016. "Open enrollment is a floodgate of money out of our district and it just straps the families that are here. It makes it very difficult to do the kind of programming we want to do because we are spending all this money on other districts. Open enrollment has been a huge detriment to the Fort Madison Community School District."
In addition to open enrollment issues, which many other districts in southeast Iowa struggle with, those in the public school community also are concerned about the possibility of some state funds being directed from their schools to start a voucher system or education savings account program for private school students, which some Republicans in the Legislature have championed.
Kearns, a Democrat from Keokuk, pointed to the tight budget and emergency reserve funds that need to be repaid as a sign Republicans won't be able to move forward with those plans this year even if they wanted to, but the issue likely still will be addressed.
"I'm not in particular favor of this. I think it's probably not the way to go. Public school education's been around for a long time, it was put in place for everybody. I certainly don't have a problem with parents sending their children to private school, that's fine. But if they choose to do that, that probably ought to be on their own dime."
Also Friday, Kearns answered questions about Medicaid privatization, potential tax cuts, Reynolds' leadership style, bottle and can redemption, smoking in casinos, funding for domestic violence organizations and gun rights.
On Medicaid privatization, Kearns noted a bill introduced this week in the Senate that would terminate Iowa's contracts with managed care organizations and bring the operation of Medicaid back under state control. Given that Medicaid privatization was instituted by former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, Kearns said it is unlikely the majority party will revert back to the state-run system.
The next legislative forum in Fort Madison will be noon Feb. 16 at The Palms.