Iowa private college officials say a key lawmaker is threatening funding to a state tuition grant program over their opposition to allowing community colleges to offer four-year degrees.
Gary Steinke, president of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said lobbyists for the association received a call last week from Rep. Taylor Collins, chair of the Iowa House Higher Education Committee. Steinke said Collins told them certain Iowa lawmakers are thinking of withholding their support for funding for the Iowa Tuition Grant program, which provides financial aid to students in need who wish to attend one of the state’s private higher education institutions.
The threat stems from anger over the private institutions’ opposition to HF 2649, Steinke says. The bill would establish a pilot program in which certain community colleges could establish up to three bachelor’s degrees in specific programs.
Community colleges are supportive of the legislation while private higher education institutions say it would harm them in the effort to solve a problem they claim doesn’t exist — with lawmakers looking for a compromise that will bring them closer together. However, some lawmakers are evidently becoming increasingly frustrated with the private university stance against the legislation.
Collins refused to comment on the inner workings of the caucus and did not confirm that he said lawmakers might consider cutting or eliminating the Iowa Tuition Grant. He said lawmakers are frustrated because private universities have been “totally inappropriate” in their handling of opposing the bill.
He said he’s told the private institutions “from the beginning” that he’s willing to work on a compromise on the legislation, and he believes the amended bill the committee approved “balances the interests of the private colleges and the community colleges.”
Steinke says the private colleges are facing retaliation for exercising their right to lobby for their interests.
“When the Legislature proposes something that you don’t like, then you lobby against it, you speak against it, you work with people to share your view,” Steinke said. “That’s not illegal, that’s democracy, and because we’re exercising our democratic right to oppose something that we feel is harmful to the private colleges, you’re going to eliminate the best financial aid program in the country at the expense of Iowa students who don’t have any money, who come from from very poor socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The bill was on the tentative debate list in the House last week but did not come up for consideration. The Republican caucus has been unable to confirm 51 Republican votes approving the legislation, Steinke said, which is what it would need to pass out of House debate and head to the Iowa Senate for further consideration.
A number of absences from the Legislature last week was a factor in the bill not coming up for debate, Collins said, so there are still ongoing conversations on the bill. He added he is discussing with lawmakers the possibility of bringing the bill to the House floor this week, but it depends on the number of absences in the Legislature and whether they have the votes.
“Ultimately, there’s a lot of southeast Iowa and southwest Iowa lawmakers that are trying to do what’s right for their district, and we’re tired of seeing constituents go to college and not come back,” Collins said. “You know, we talk about the brain drain a lot, and it’s happening in southeast and southwest Iowa, and so you have a lot of lawmakers who are very passionate about this issue.”
Steinke said Collins’ call, and what it represents for potential funding cuts for Iowa students, is “very troubling.” He said he doesn’t understand the correlation between private universities opposing this legislation and the threat to “punish thousands of low-income Iowa students and their parents” through lowering or eliminating funding to the Iowa Tuition Grant program.
“It is a grant to students who want to go to college who can’t afford to otherwise, and to somehow conflate not being able to pass a bill — and a bad one at that — with eliminating the Iowa Tuition Grant program completely, doesn’t make any sense, and that’s putting it mildly,” Steinke said.
Emily Shields, executive director of Community Colleges for Iowa, said she doesn’t have knowledge of the bill’s current status aside from its passage out of committee, but said Iowa’s community colleges are excited to keep having conversations on the bill.
Other states have launched similar programs as pilot studies, Shields said, and they have found success through them in meeting workforce needs and serving students where they are. No other state has seen negative impacts on private institutions, she said, and she doesn’t believe any other state has seen “this level of response from their private colleges.” Only 4 percent of private university enrollment is made up of community college transfers, she added.
“I think our hope is that we can have a conversation and make decisions that are best for students,” Shields said.
Brooklyn Draisey is a Report for America corps member covering higher education for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this story first appeared.
