Checking claims in Iowa Gov. Reynolds’ sixth Condition of the State address

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds described the state as a "beacon for freedom and opportunity" in front of the joint session of the Iowa House and Senate on Jan. 10. 

Reynolds was ready to tout the state’s successes in implementing low-income tax rates and getting children back in the classroom during the pandemic in her annual Condition of the State address.

But the ritual isn’t just for Iowa’s governor to highlight what they’ve accomplished. It was also the time for Reynolds to introduce where she wants to take the state in the new year. 

Reynolds introduced several proposals for the next legislative session, including:

• Ensuring school choice and providing funding for parents who want to send their children to private schools. 
• Loosening reporting requirements for schools to give schools more freedom when it comes to teachers’ salaries, flexibility to achieve their core mission, and taking advantage of dual enrollment. 
• Promote parental involvement through the expansion of the MOMS program. 
• Increase the funding from $3 to $15 million for the Healthcare Apprenticeship Program.
• Increase penalties for the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl.
• Streamlining government positions by decreasing cabinet agencies from 37 to 16.

The Daily Iowan and PolitiFact Iowa fact-checked some of the claims made in Reynolds’ speech. 

PolitiFact Iowa reported in a previous fact check that Reynolds’ administration managed to spend while cutting income taxes after the state left fiscal 2022 with a $1.91 billion surplus. 

In October 2022, the Cato Institute, the Washington, D.C. think tank, named Reynolds as the most fiscally responsible governor in the U.S.

The institute said in a statement from the Office of the Governor of Iowa that Reynolds was ranked the highest because she is dedicated to cutting taxes and high spending. 

The institute also said that this ranking is backed by Reynolds’ push to end Iowa’s inheritance tax in 2021.  

"This, combined with her abolition of the state’s inheritance tax has earned her the number one spot on this year’s report card," the nonpartisan Cato Institute said in the statement.

However, U.S. News ranks Iowa as the 23rd state for fiscal stability.

Reynolds said on Tuesday that Iowa is ranked as a top ten state to live in America. U.S. News ranked Des Moines, Iowa as the 18th best place to live in 2022-23 in the U.S. and 12th overall as a state.

Iowa’s No. 1 rank in opportunity, according to U.S. News, is based on affordability, economic opportunity, and equality. Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Missouri follow Iowa’s top rank. 

During the 2022 legislative session, Iowa House members approved a 2.5 % increase in spending per student in Iowa. In fiscal 2023, the state will spend $7,431 per student. 

In June 2022, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis approved his Freedom First Budget, raising the state’s per-student spending to $8,143, more than what Iowa currently spends per student. 

State-by-state per-student funding can be linked to students’ performance on standardized tests. In 2022, Iowa’s fourth-grade students scored an average of 240 in mathematics and in reading an average of 218. Florida’s fourth-grade students in mathematics scored an average of 240 and 224 in reading. 

Florida’s eighth graders scored an average of 271 in mathematics and 259 in reading while Iowa’s eighth-graders in mathematics scored an average of  277 and an average of 259 in reading. 

Although Iowa scored less than Florida, according to the National Assessment of Education Performance, Iowa’s students scored higher than the national average. 

Reynolds said on Tuesday Florida spends $2,000 less on education than Iowa when in reality Iowa spends $1,000 more per student. Despite investing more per student, Iowa was outperformed by Florida. 

According to the Child and Family Research Partnership at the University of Texas, Austin, infants whose fathers are absent at birth are more likely to have health complications because the mothers are less likely to have been supported by fathers prenatally. 

Additionally, the report says, growing up without an involved father is linked to the likelihood that children will exhibit behavioral problems in school.

A peer-reviewed study from the Annual Review of Sociology reports that students without two parental figures in the home are less likely to be engaged in their studies. The study found evidence that a father’s absence negatively affects a child’s social-emotional development and can be more pronounced if the absence is experienced during early rather than in middle childhood. 

Reynolds asked the legislature to impose heftier penalties on the illegal manufacturing and distribution of Fentanyl, with even bigger penalties on sales that result in overdose deaths. 

Reynolds pointed to a recent epidemic of opioid overdoses over the past few years, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services in 2019 there were 350 overdose deaths reported, and 471 reported in 2021, a 34 percent increase in total overdose deaths. 

The department also reported 20 overdose deaths in people newly born through age 24 in 2019, while 44 overdose deaths were reported in 2022 in the same age group. 

The Centers for Disease Control reported similar results with 352 drug overdoses in 2019 and 471 reported in 2021. 

Reynolds said 83 percent of Iowa’s opioid-related deaths were because of fentanyl. According to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Substance Abuse, in 2021 there were 258 deaths involving opioids and 213 deaths involving synthetic narcotics, the International Classifications of Diseases code for fentanyl and other synthetic opioid overdoses.