Iowa House Passes Tuition Freeze, Continuing Education, Anti-DEI Bills

You'll want to remember this moment. Help us record what's happening in Decorah. Iowa House lawmakers passed legislation Tuesday to freeze tuition and restrict some nonresident enrollment at public universities, penalize private colleges with diversity, equity and inclusion offices, and make changes to continuing education and career and technical education. Career, continuing education courses House File 2547 would expand career and technical education credit transfers and establish a fund for CTE learning outside of the school year. The House amended the bill to include a directive for the Iowa Board of Regents to study the potential implementation of a performance-based funding model and submit a report by its November meeting to the General Assembly. Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, said the amendment incorporates House File 2243, which passed out of the higher education committee in January, into the current legislation. While Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, said she didn't agree with the amendment, she added the bill overall will help with continuously growing CTE student populations. The legislation passed unanimously. "The sad part about this amendment is that this slows the progress down for our Iowa students," Brown-Powers said. "However, going forward, this is still a good bill going for our Iowa students." Continuing education limits House File 2246 would require that continuing education courses mandated by state licensing boards, including the Iowa Supreme Court, be directly related to the profession. The bill as approved by the House Higher Education Committee stated people are not required to graduate from an American Bar Association Council-accredited institution in order to take the bar exam. The provision was amended in the House to clarify that people must still attend law school before taking the exam, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said. Lawmakers had concerns with almost every section of the bill, from limiting required but unwanted continuing education courses to expanding training allowances for future attorneys. Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, supported the amendment but not the bill as a whole, citing concerns he brought up during the committee meeting that the Legislature should not be getting involved in the responsibilities of licensed professionals and their governing boards. Rep. Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids, said she is against the legislation because she knows the importance of wellness education among attorneys, who deal with high levels of stress from clients who may be difficult or have unmanageable expectations. Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant, added that 50-75% of disciplinary cases against lawyers are related to mental health or substance abuse by that attorney. "Advocates for this bill will suggest that you can still voluntarily take a wellness class, but folks, when people are using drugs and drinking, unable to cope with unimaginable stress, those are some of the hardest things to face — our vices," Jones said. "So we avoid the topic." Lohse said he appreciates the efforts represented by the bill to expand the attorney workforce in Iowa, but he is concerned that welcoming graduates who didn't attend an American Bar Association Council-accredited institution could "dumb down the profession." Speaking in support of the bill, Holt said it will welcome more competition in the legal education field and potentially decrease the cost of a degree and address problems he's heard from people who say the continuing education courses they have to take waste their time. "I think this is an outstanding piece of legislation to create competitiveness, possibly drive down the cost of legal education, (and) to respect the time of these professionals," Holt said. The bill passed with a 53-38 vote. Public, private higher education Holt also introduced House File 2488, which would put Iowa Tuition Grant dollars on the line for private higher education institutions that open or maintain offices of diversity, equity and inclusion. Brown-Powers said the legislation is a "gross overstep" of the Legislature into private colleges, many of which are affiliated with a religion — described by her as a tenet of DEI. "If we implement this bill and remove the Iowa Tuition Grant Program, we will see our private colleges failing across the state of Iowa," Brown-Powers said. Holt said the objective for those in support of the legislation is laid out in the bill itself — colorblind, sex-neutral admissions and nothing else thought of than merit, which he called the "ultimate goal of the Civil Rights Movement in this country." The bill passed through the House with a 57-34 vote. Residency requirement for nursing degree House File 2226 would, as amended, establish a 70% residency rate in the University of Iowa's bachelor of science in nursing program starting in fall 2027. The original legislation would have imposed a residency rate of 80%. According to a fiscal note attached to the bill in its original form, the UI nursing program in fall 2025 enrolled 671 students — around 61% Iowa residents and 39% from out of state. With expected shifts in enrollment and increases to tuition, the fiscal note stated the UI program is estimated to see revenue decreasing by $754,000 in FY 2027, $1.5 million in FY 2028, $2.1 million in FY 2029, $2.8 million in FY 2030, and $2.8 million in FY 2031. In speaking with UI faculty and students, Brown-Powers said she learned 40% of nursing slots across Iowa go unfilled, and this legislation would only make that problem worse by causing the UI to draw students away from other Iowa institutions to meet this requirement. Thirty percent of nonresident students who attend the UI for nursing stay in the state after graduation, she added, and lawmakers should work with experts in the profession to solve the problems this legislation seeks to address. "If we're going to do everything on merit, then we probably don't need this bill," Brown-Powers said. Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said merit in admissions to the nursing program does need to be addressed, as he heard from one student with a greater-than-4.0 grade-point average and a 29 on the ACT that she wasn't accepted into the UI program and attended the University of Nebraska instead. The bill passed with a 62-29 vote. Tuition freeze House File 224, would establish a five-year tuition freeze at state universities. Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, referencing a fiscal note attached to the legislation, said the bill would cost state universities $64.4 million over the next five fiscal years — $25 million at the UI, $27.9 million at Iowa State University and $11.5 million at the University of Northern Iowa. Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, called the legislation "a good first step" in making higher education more affordable and accessible, but said it doesn't address the problem of decreasing state funding, exacerbating the need to raise tuition to balance budgets. "It is important to freeze tuition, but that has to be backed up with funding that ensures Iowa students have access to higher education, to world class regents universities, and that employers and people in the state of Iowa have access to the skills and the people we need to move our state forward," Zabner said. Collins said no matter how much the state allocates to its public universities, described as more than $600 million every year, bureaucracy continues to grow. The legislation passed 86-5. Each bill was sent to the Iowa Senate for consideration. Get the inside scoop! Subscribe to the free DecorahNews.com newsletter and receive local news, expert analysis, and stories that matter most—straight to your inbox.