Now that the 2024 Iowa Legislative Session is underway, one state senator is working on new legislation.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green (R-Boone) says a bill that he is looking to introduce in the local government committee that he serves on is about correcting an issue he was notified about from a public school district in the Waterloo area. He points out the public school would rather demolish a property than sell it to a private school, just because it is a private school.

“I think there’s something inherently wrong with that. If a private school that’s accredited wants to be able to provide a bid on a school property, I think they should be able to do that. So that’s one of my new bills this year that’s going to take place that I think will stir some interesting conversation.”   

Green points out a bill that was passed out of the Senate last year and is still in the House is correcting what he believes is an out of date law. He says in the 1970s if parents got a divorce, the judge could force them to split college tuition three ways with their child.

“In the 1970s that may have made some sense. You didn’t see a lot of divorce situations and college tuition was low. So I didn’t think back then that would’ve been that hostile of a conversation.”

Green thinks that in today’s world with college tuition being much higher the current provision is unfair and should be eliminated from state code.