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2006 Legislative Session Wrap Up
The second session of the 81st General Assembly ended May 3, 2006. Legislation of particular interest to Iowa Arts Council constituents includes the following:
Appropriations:
• Level funding for the Iowa Arts Council at $1,181,329. Additional
support to fund negotiated salary adjustments was passed at 70 percent of
the total amount, which means the remaining 30 percent required to fund
salary adjustments will need to come from the existing IAC budget.
• Level funding at $299,240 for the community cultural grants programs,
which include Iowa Community Cultural Grants (ICCG) and the Cultural Enrichment
Partnership (CEP).
• Authorization for the Great Places Advisory Board to designate up
to six additional Great Places in Iowa. Great Places received a $300,000
appropriation for administration of the program and $3 million in each of
the next two years for capital infrastructure projects in Great Places communities.
• $5,000 to conduct a study of arts education and enrichment programming
occurring outside of school settings for school age children.
• Endow Iowa Bill includes a provision allotting $520,000 of gambling
revenue to the Department of Cultural Affairs to fund increases of $260,000
to the Iowa Community Cultural Grants (ICCG) program and $260,000 to the
Arts Council’s Operating Support Partnership program. These revenues
become available in July 2008.
Arts education:
Arts educators are looking carefully at the impact of additional legislation.
The Iowa Alliance for Arts in Education has provided this analysis of what
their members consider the two most prominent issues dealt with by the legislature
this year:
1.) The No Pass No Play bill (NPNP) was passed by the Iowa Legislature. Now the Iowa High School Music Association (IHSMA) and Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA), the two organizations charged with organizing and supervising state sanctioned music and speech events, have written policy that will allow students to participate in their activities around the state. Although the legislation was passed with athletics in mind, the effect also is felt by those involved in music, speech and theatre as well.
Where there is adjudication of students as an extension of the curricular classroom, such as music “festivals,” (not truly “contests” because all participants are adjudicated and there are no declared winners or losers) the NPNP will not be applied. Jazz contest is an exception to that rule, and NPNP would be applied there. IHSMA will send a proposed constitutional change to all local superintendents and boards for their ratification this August, while a proposed change to the IHSSA bylaws will be taken to that Executive Board in June. Although IHSSA and IHSMA are establishing minimum standards for participation in each of their respective groups of activities, local policy will be established by administration and the school board of each district.
2.) The Iowa legislature for the first time mandated how many units of
instruction in math, science, social studies and language arts each student
must pass in order to graduate. However, which specific classes each student
must take to meet the requirement was not mandated, and how those classes
are structured is up to each local district. The IAAE notes that a course
in cultural history might meet a Social Studies requirement, or a class
on the science of music production, art development and technical theatre
might meet a science requirement.
