Tom Walton chairs the Dallas County Democrats.
In 2018, Governor Kim Reynolds made “Future Ready Iowa” her trademark program designed to improve Iowa's workforce, setting a goal to increase the number of Iowans with post-secondary education to 70 percent of the workforce by 2025.
“I am pleased to say that we have reached our ambitious goal, and we have done so ahead of schedule,” Reynolds declared in his State of the State address last month. The Future Ready Iowa website similarly asserts: “We are now proud to announce that we have achieved this goal as a state.”
Two years ahead of schedule sounds like a huge public policy achievement, doesn't it? Not so fast. After closer examination, Reynolds and her team played around with the numbers.
Initial goal: 70% with post-secondary degrees
The Future Ready Iowa coalition (led by the Governor's Office) recognized Iowa's workforce crisis in a 2017 report called Metrics That Matter. There were not enough skilled workers to fill the jobs of the future. The Lumina Foundation, which supported the report, had set a goal of 60 percent of Americans.Detain Degrees, certificates, or other post-secondary credentials by 2025. (Emphasis added).
Likewise, Iowa has set a goal of having 70% of Iowa's workforce between the ages of 25 and 64 have education beyond high school by 2025. “This will mean more Iowans will have gainful careers in High demand, and that employers will be able to hire the skilled workers they need.At the time, the report cited government reports showing that the percentage of Iowans with post-secondary certificates or degrees was only 58 percent.
The goal was clear:[T]o Reaching the 70 percent goal. . . Iowa needs 127,700 more residents For post-secondary degrees and other credentials By 2025.”
The measure used to determine progress toward this goal is clearly defined as “postsecondary educational attainment.” . . This means Iowans who have completed two- or four-year college degrees as well as other credentials, such as trade certificates and other professional training.“.
So that was the goal an end Earning a post-secondary degree, certification license, or vocational training program, not just taking some classes after high school that a person thinks might be useful.
The metrics chosen to measure Future Ready Iowa's progress confirmed this intent. The program adopted data provided by the Iowa Workforce Development Employment Survey and, in particular, the survey's reported percentage of “total post-high school completers.” The 2016 report showed that the overall percentage of completers increased from 48.3 percent in 2008 to 58.1 percent in 2016.
Future Ready Iowa's annual reports then repeated the same 70 percent goal, using the same survey standard of “total post-high school completers” to measure the program's progress. For example, Reynolds stated in her introductory speech for the 2019 program report: “Our challenge together is to mobilize Iowans to obtain 139,900 additional postsecondary credentials by 2025.”
There was just one problem: The 2018 Labor Survey indicated that the percentage of “total completers” had dropped since the program began, from 58.4% to 57.6%.
Early signs of 'little progress toward our state goal'
From the beginning, some questioned whether Future Ready Iowa would be able to meet its goal of 70 percent post-secondary “completers.” The 2018 State of Higher Education in Iowa report, published by Iowa College Aid, warned of the program's shortcomings: “Overall, small increases in achievement and widening gaps in achievement indicate little progress toward achieving our state's goal of 70 percent of Yes, education or training. Post-secondary school by 2025.”
Speaking to the Des Moines Register at the time, Elizabeth Kest-Sedrell, a spokeswoman for Iowa College Aid, said: “We need to accelerate what we're doing, and we especially need to target the populations where we see the biggest gaps — Hispanic students, black students and black students.” low-income people.” In addition to,
“Too many minority and low-income students are falling behind in college readiness and completion,” said Mark Federspan, executive research officer at the state agency. [Iowa College Aid]. “This is especially disturbing because (they) are part of the growing population segments in our state.”
The 2022 Iowa Labor Survey showed that the percentage of post-secondary completions declined again, from 62.1 percent in 2021 to 61.6 percent in 2022.
Since the creation of Future Ready Iowa, the percentage of post-secondary completions has increased by only about 3 percent.
It will need to triple this growth in the remaining two years to achieve the 70% target by 2025. Something had to be done.
Moving into the future ready for Iowa goals
In response, the Reynolds administration moved the program's goals, changing the program's goal and the metric used to measure it.
Recall that Reynolds declared victory in her 2024 State of the State address: “Tonight, I am pleased to say that we reached our ambitious goal, and we did so ahead of schedule. […] Reaching this milestone is a powerful lesson in how real change happens.
That would be great, if true. But that is not the case.
The original goal was for 70 percent of Iowans to have training or education beyond high school. But seven years into Future Ready Iowa, the Reynolds administration changed the purpose of Future Ready Iowa an end From the post-secondary education program to obtain “appearance For post-secondary education or training.”
Then they changed the measure of success. Instead of using the percentage of completers — which in 2022 was 61.6 percent, or 8.4 percent below the 2025 goal — the administration, again for the first time, used as a measure of success “total postsecondary completers.” Plus “Non-post-secondary completers (no award) who have found value in education/training.”
Fortunately for Team Reynolds, the 2022 Laborshed poll put that total at 71.8 percent.
The truth is that Future Ready Iowa has not met yet And they will not meet Its goal is for 70 percent of Iowans between the ages of 25 and 64 to complete a post-high school education program by 2025.
Does it matter? When the program launched in 2017, the Metrics That Matter report stated that “it is impossible to overstate the importance of reaching this goal.” He also warned that “without significantly enhancing the education and training of our state's workforce, our competitiveness could evaporate,” and that “solving Iowa's workforce crisis is an economic imperative.”
These high risks may explain why the Reynolds administration manipulated the program's purpose and standards. Such misleading behavior undermines public confidence in government and other efforts to improve Iowa's workforce.
The governor should not evade accountability for her administration's egregious efforts to cover up Future Ready Iowa's failure to achieve its primary goal.
