In week three of the Iowa 2024 legislative session, Governor Kim Reynolds’s Area Education Agency Bill faced differing opinions.

The Senate passed the bill, but House Representative Ray Sorensen says that’s why there are three branches of government, it adds checks and balances to each branch. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that differing views in the House resulted in a different outcome than in the Senate.

“We held a subcommittee on the Governor’s AEA proposal, and in the end the subcommittee decided not to advance the bill to full committee. They cited the need for more conversations on the matter, but ultimately, it’s just become clear that after taking feedback form Iowans, there is not the support in the House to move the bill forward in its current form, even with the amendment.”

Sorensen mentions that even though the bill is still alive in the Senate, he’s heard that it may be difficult to get it to progress further. He adds that the House will continue to work with stakeholders and educators around the state, to make sure that any AEA bill that is passed would benefit special education for Iowans.