(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – With Iowa’s community college system set to celebrate 60 years of serving students, its leaders are getting ready to work with the Iowa Legislature to potentially implement new degree programs and curriculum.

Community Colleges for Iowa Executive Director Emily Shields said she agrees with lawmakers that community colleges are “one of Iowa’s best kept secrets,” and she hopes community colleges can receive the additional funding and program support to expand affordability and access for high school, college-age and adult learners.

Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, and Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia — chairs of the Iowa House Higher Education Committee and the Iowa Senate Education Committee, respectively — have said that community colleges will be a focus of the upcoming legislative session. Evans called community colleges one of Iowa’s “hidden gems” that the state needs to do a better job of promoting.

The Iowa Legislature created the statewide community college system 60 years ago this year, Shields said, and it has been a “national model” ever since. Community colleges will be asking for a $12 million increase in state funding for the next fiscal year, Shields said, mainly to keep up with increasing costs of goods and services and to keep pay and benefits competitive. Like the previous year, when community colleges implemented a funding formula designed and approved by college presidents to level out the institutions receiving more or less per-student funding, this additional funding will also further that process.

Some of those funds would also go toward implementing bachelor’s degree programs at community colleges, Shields said — if the Legislature decides to turn that potential into a reality. Community Colleges for Iowa released a report in October 2025 exploring other states’ efforts to incorporate baccalaureate degrees into their academic offerings and what would be needed for Iowa to do the same, after prompting from Iowa lawmakers in the previous legislative session. Collins said implementing new community college degree programs will be a priority this session, but Shields said the usual state funding request won’t cover the costs entirely.

In addition to general state aid, Shields said Community Colleges for Iowa plans to request a $20 million fund for the creation of baccalaureate degrees at community colleges. The money will act as startup funding for these programs. Shields said introducing new kinds of degrees to community colleges wouldn’t change their collective mission so much as build upon it. The system’s mission is focused on workforce, credentials and degrees, as well as meeting unmet needs in local areas.

Community colleges are also hoping to make changes to the Last-Dollar Scholarship Program, a scholarship fund which Shields said has been underspent, especially as the list of career fields included in the scholarship has been limited. The Last-Dollar Scholarship Program provides eligible students attending a community college with enough money to fill any gaps left between their financial aid and the cost of tuition and fees.

The Iowa Workforce Development Board voted in spring 2025 to limit the number of job fields that students must enroll in a program related to in order to receive Last-Dollar Scholarship funding, a decision that eliminated careers in law enforcement, medical and dental assisting, wastewater and more. Shields said the program has been underspent the last couple of years, due to an income cap implemented a few years ago and what jobs were eligible for the program, and the new limitations on eligible job fields will “constrict” the money that’s supposed to be going to students even more.

One bill has already been filed ahead of the Jan. 12 start of the session, which would make changes to requirements for career academy courses, the articulation agreement between community colleges and state universities and programming aimed at helping high school students afford a concurrent education. The proposed legislation, if adopted, would require career academies to offer at least two units of secondary education, one of which must meet requirements of a “district-to-community college sharing or concurrent enrollment program,” the bill explanation stated.

Shields said conversations around career and technical education credit transfers, as well as establishing more dedicated funding for high school students hoping to earn those credits, have been ongoing for a couple of years as concurrent enrollment has grown.