With the state budget in good condition, a strong investment in education and job training will keep our economy growing and expand Iowa’s middle class. That’s the goal of the Education Budget approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SSB 1277 funds the Department for the Blind, the College Student Aid Commission, the Department of Education and the Board of Regents.
Iowans value the opportunities that Iowa’s 15 community colleges provide. Community colleges do a great job of training a skilled workforce at a time when nearly 34 percent of open positions in Iowa require an education level equal to an associate’s degree or higher. In 2014, Iowa’s community colleges trained more than 85,000 Iowans. That’s why we want to provide more than $40 million in on-going worker training funding for all of Iowa’s community colleges.
Despite the growing importance of community colleges to both Iowa students and the Iowa economy, state funding has not kept up. Even when accounting for inflation, tuition has increased dramatically in recent years. To help, our Education Budget includes an $8 million increase in general aid to our community colleges. This funding will help keep tuition rates down so that all Iowans — from high school seniors earning their first college credits to family breadwinners getting new skills for better jobs — are able to learn, train and grow at our community colleges.
About 63 percent of Iowa’s state university graduates in 2013 had student loan debt, averaging $28,293 per student, according to the Iowa College Student Aid Commission. This year, we are proposing the funding necessary to freeze tuition for the third straight year at the University of Iowa, Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa.
The Iowa Policy Project, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Reserve and others warn that rising student loan debt is bad for our economy. The investments we propose will help reign in escalating student debt, strengthen our middle class and grow Iowa’s future.