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Iowa lawmakers talk education, illegal immigration

DES MOINES (AP) — While Democrats at the state Capitol want to keep education on the front burner, Republicans want to see movement on other issues, such as illegal immigration reform. House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, said a bill that would allow the K-12 budget to grow by 4 percent in the 2009-2010 school year should be debated in both chambers in coming days. He hopes to have it on Gov. Chet Culver’s desk by the end of the week.

“This is our first focus on education this year, but it’s not the last. We’re going to continue to maintain our commitment” to teacher quality, early childhood education and higher education, Murphy said.

While the 4 percent increase could face opposition from Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said there is consensus in both parties that community colleges should get more money instead of being treated as the “poor stepchild” of education in Iowa.

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said most lawmakers want to give a boost to community colleges, he was skeptical about where the money would come from.

“The governor’s budget doesn’t really have a lot of wiggle room in it,” he said. “I think there’s some creative places you can shift dollars around from, none of which will be terribly popular.”

Rants said that as other lawmakers talk about community colleges, he’s concerned about the private schools that need help from students who use the state’s tuition grant program.

“While it appears as though the regents were pretty much fully funded (this year), and the community college got an increase ... the students in this state who receive the Iowa tuition grant got nothing, zero, no increase at all,” he said. “Last I checked, their tuition continues to increase as well.”

Gronstal said he doesn’t know yet where the money for community colleges will come from, but that giving them a boost will be a priority in the more than $6 billion proposed state budget.

Iowans may also hear more next week about a GOP-proposed immigration reform package. It includes hiring more state troopers, cutting government services such as Medicaid and food stamps to illegal immigrants, requiring agencies to check citizenship and banning illegal immigrants from community colleges and public universities.

House Democrats have already proposed an immigration reform plan that would levy big fines against heads of corporations that knowingly hire undocumented workers. They said they want to go after the employers who are pushing down wages, and they accuse Republicans of punishing the people who are exploited by greedy corporate interests.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, said the GOP proposal is an “amnesty bill for corporate CEOS.”

“Republicans are apparently fine with Iowa becoming a sanctuary state for employers who want to knowingly skirt federal immigration laws,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Ron Wieck, R-Sioux City, said that’s not the case. While penalties for employers should be severe, he said the government should also fulfill its enforcement role and help businesses verify whether their employees are legal.

“I encourage people to come to Iowa that are legal and to work in Iowa, and I think we ought to help them and we ought to provide jobs for them. And, I also think that we ought to support the people that are providing the jobs for them, and penalizing them for something, that in my opinion they don’t have proper control over, is not the way to do it,” he said.

Wieck said he wouldn’t rule out possible criminal penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

“If we get to the point where civil and monetary penalties don’t work, we need to do what we need to do to stop illegal immigration in the state of Iowa,” he said.
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Dean Fiihr, Communications Director House Speaker Pat Murphy dean.fiihr@legis.state.ia.us 515-281-0817 (work) 515-867-3790 (cell) www.iowahouse.org

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