As students across Iowa head back to school and college campuses, the rising cost of higher education is top of mind for parents and students alike. Earning a degree or learning a skilled trade should be a doorway to opportunity—not a lifetime of overwhelming debt.
Last year, I created the Higher Education Committee in the Iowa House to take a comprehensive look at our system and find real ways to curb out-of-control costs.
It’s easy to think that throwing more money at higher education will automatically fix the problem. But as former Appropriations Chair, I’ve seen that approach fail time and again. Iowa taxpayers already appropriate over $600 million every year to our regent universities, plus another $52 million for the Iowa Tuition Grant to assist students attending private, nonprofit colleges.
In total, the Regents’ budget (excluding UIHC) now stands at over $5 billion—more than half the size of the entire state budget. Yet, only about one-third of these expenditures actually go toward academic instruction.
Simply handing over more taxpayer dollars hasn’t stopped bureaucracy and administrative costs from ballooning. It’s past time for our universities to practice true financial discipline rather than continuously passing the buck to taxpayers and families.
What We Passed in the Iowa House
We’ve focused on passing practical legislation that puts students and families first while expanding pathways to rewarding careers.
1. Lowering College Costs & Increasing Transparency
Through House File 440 (The College Affordability Act), now signed into law, we enacted key provisions to protect students’ wallets:
- Predictable Pricing: Tuition rates must now be set on or before April 30th each year, giving families clear figures well before the fall semester starts.
- Employer-Paid Tuition: Requires each regent university to offer at least one Work-Study program where students can earn a degree while having their tuition paid by an employer.
- Accelerated Degree Tracks: Directs universities to offer three-year bachelor’s degree options to get students into the workforce faster with less debt.
- Tuition Lock Study: Directs the Board of Regents to study a tuition guarantee model that would lock in a freshman’s rate for all four years.
2. Investing in the Trades & Skilled Workforce
A traditional four-year college path isn’t the only route to success. To expand opportunities in high-demand technical fields, we passed Senate File 2168 (The Iowa Skilled Workforce Act) into law:
- Apprenticeship Funding: Boosts the 84E Apprenticeship Act funding from $3 million to $4.5 million to expand Registered Apprenticeship programs.
- Modern Facilities: Allocates $3.5 million to build state-of-the-art training facilities at community colleges and within private-sector programs.
- Expert Instructors: Cuts red tape so experienced tradespeople can teach in classrooms and introduce pre-apprenticeships in K–12 schools.
- Workforce Expansion: Standardizes ratio rules across plumbing, HVAC, and electrical trades to make it easier to train the next generation of workers.
More to Come
While we’ve made strong progress, our work isn’t done. The Iowa House championed several aggressive cost-cutting measures this past session that did not clear the Senate—including HF 2242 (a 5-year tuition freeze at regent institutions), HF 2649 (allowing targeted bachelor’s degrees at community colleges), and HF 2362 (locking in 4-year tuition rates capped at inflation).
We will continue to push for these bold solutions. As long as I serve as Speaker of the House, I will fight for structural reforms that make education predictable, practical, and affordable for Iowa families.