Jasper County legislators say there are way too many bills filed this session

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles covering the topics discussed at legislative gatherings hosted by the League of Women Voters of Jasper County.

Sen. Ken Rozenboom said there have been way too many bills filed this session, and hardly any of them are good ideas.

“There are over 900 House Files, nearly 1,000,” Rozenboom said during a recent legislative gathering hosted at the Newton Public Library by the League of Women Voters of Jasper County. “There are over 600 Senate Files. And then there are study bills. And there aren’t that many good ideas, let me to you.”

He said this again when he and his fellow lawmakers, Rep. Barb Kniff McCulla and Rep. Jon Dunwell, were questioned about a bill letting homeschools charge tuition and possibly be eligible for education savings accounts. He said it once more when they were asked about a bill penalizing use of genetic-based vaccine.

Rozenboom admitted at the time he did not know much about House File 888, which would loosen restrictions on homeschooling and let parents teach other children and even charge tuition. Kim Didier, of Newton, suggested this bill could allow homeschools to eventually apply for ESAs.

In order to apply and participate in the ESA program, students must be enrolled in an accredited nonpublic schools. But homeschools do not need accreditation.

“I’ll harken back to what I said a few moments ago: I don’t think there are that many good ideas, and this may be one of them,” Rozenboom said. “A lot of bills get filed for different reasons. Not all of them are for good reasons. Some of them are making a statement. Some of them are, whatever, somebody’s pet project.”

However, he said, that is the purpose of the House and the Senate, as well as the first funnel week — which concluded March 7 — to vet all kinds of bills.

Even though Dunwell agrees there are too many bills filed this session, he clarified that House File 888 has nothing to do with ESAs. In a follow up after the gathering, Dunwell even suggested the bill has a greater chance of not making it to the House floor for debate and a vote. It may not be ready for primetime.

Dunwell also added there is no movement in the Iowa House to ever give, at this point, a homeschool student an ESA. He told the audience at the legislative gathering that homeschool parents “would absolutely cry murder” if the Iowa Legislature tried to give them ESAs. Dunwell said they don’t want it.

“They don’t want it because they want to have some of their freedom,” Dunwell said. “What that bill does is sometimes homeschool parents want to have a little bit better education, say, on some topics for their kids; so they’re going to bring a teacher in to endorse that, to teach them more complicated topics.”

The bill would allow them to do what is already being done, Dunwell said. There is no law against it, but there is not a law for it. But he stressed there is not a movement in that bill to give ESAs to homeschools. Dunwell said it would be too complicated to track accountability; whereas private schools have accreditation.

“Accreditation means something,” Dunwell said. “It’s about governance. It’s about finances. It’s about audits. It’s about all those things beyond education that are there, and that would be a lot of responsibility to place upon a parent. We’re trying to find out is that a legitimate expense or not a legitimate expense.”

Stacy Simbro, a member of the Newton City Council, raised the issues surrounding Senate File 360, the bill that would fine healthcare workers for administering genetic-based vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. Dunwell, Kniff McCulla and Rozenboom were very quick to point out that bill had died.

“That’s gone,” Rozenboom said. “That’s going nowhere. That was one of those bills that, frankly, should never have been filed, in my opinion. It had come out of subcommittee. It never got a hearing in full committee … And I had a talk with the person that filed it. I won’t tell you what that conversation was.”

Dunwell added the House killed it. Simbro was happy to hear the bill had died and hoped it would never come up again.

In a followup with Newton News, Dunwell said everything is a greater vetting process. Ideas can develop with a subcommittee of around three or so people then move on to a larger committee of 20 or more. Even if a bill makes it through committee, Dunwell said there may be additional work that can be done.

Lawmakers may also meet in caucuses to discuss topics and concerns. Dunwell said these meetings, too, are an extension of the review process.

“Everything goes through multiple vetting processes, and what happens is some make their way through and some don’t, some get adapted and changed,” he said. “The final position that even a legislator has on a bill, even ones you author, isn’t until you actually vote on the House floor.”