FY 2025 State Appropriations
Each September, the Board of Regents considers approval of state appropriations requests for the following fiscal year. This year, the Board will consider FY 2025 higher education appropriation requests totaling $506.3 million, which include $14.8 million in new, incremental funding. In addition, the Board requests $22.5 million in additional special purpose dollars to fund three much-needed service projects for Iowans.
General University Appropriations Requests
The University of Iowa and Iowa State University are requesting $4.5 million each in incremental funding to offset inflationary costs for information technology hardware and software, utilities, fuel, collectively bargained wages and personnel costs. The University of Northern Iowa is requesting $5.8 million in additional general university funding to also offset inflationary costs and to keep its tuition flat.
Service to Iowans
The three public universities requested additional appropriations increases to strengthen their service and outreach to Iowans. Major components of the service requests include the UI Rural Health Care Partnership, the ISU STEM Workforce Initiative and the UNI Educators for Iowa Program.
UI’s Rural Health Care Partnership seeks to build a dynamic and sustainable partnership with the state that will address the challenges of rural health in Iowa. Workforce challenges, a rapidly aging population and low reimbursement rates combine to make the delivery of high quality, accessible health care in Iowa’s rural communities more challenging than ever. UI’s rural health efforts would expand Iowa’s healthcare workforce, expand the delivery of health care and improve health outcomes in Iowa’s rural population. To begin this work, an investment of $10 million is requested with an additional $10 million requested each subsequent year for a total recurring appropriation after five years of $50 million.
At Iowa State, strengthening degree programs that produce graduates and employees to meet Iowa’s Hot 50 Jobs is top of mind. These jobs include veterinary medicine, digital agriculture, architecture, engineering, finance, marketing, computer science and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, healthcare management and STEM teach preparation – all recognized strengths of Iowa State. ISU requests an additional $10 million for FY 2025 to continue its STEM workforce program. Year two of the program will focus on promoting economic development, fuel manufacturing and sustaining rural community vitality to attract and retain workforce talent.
At UNI, its strength is in teaching. Currently, more than 10,000 Iowa educators can trace their path back to a UNI education. Last year, UNI used $1.5 million in appropriations to recruit and retain teachers to meet Iowa’s critical educator shortage. This year, UNI requests an additional $2.5 million to continue efforts to recruit more students into the teaching profession. Funding will cover costs for teacher education students during their student teaching experiences in Iowa with a special focus on those who teach in rural districts.
These three service projects provide vital aid to Iowans in the areas that need it most. Taken together, Iowa, Iowa State and UNI’s appropriations requests strengthen their abilities to educate and serve Iowans and provide the Iowa workforce with the high-quality workers it needs.
