(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says her push to overhaul Area Education Agencies is designed to address a bloated bureaucracy and 20 years of lagging test scores among Iowa students with disabilities. Reynolds says Iowa is a small state and does not need nine A-E-As. “We did a study in 2011. That’s the danger of a study. The study gets done. It recommended at that time, I think, going down from nine to five.”

Reynolds originally proposed having Iowa’s nine A-E-As focus solely on special education services for disabled students, but she’s adjusting her plan to retain other services like a media lending library and curriculum outlines for teachers. Reynolds says her goal is to have the Iowa Department of Education develop a list of approved A-E-A services schools may choose to use. “There’s no consistency between the nine AEAs, so they can talk about school districts wanting to utilize their services, but not all of them offer those services,” Reynolds says. “It’s very hit and miss.”

Reynolds has not proposed closing or consolidating A-E-As, but she has asked legislators to hire dozens more staff in the Iowa Department of Education to oversee the 34-hundred people who work in Area Education Agencies around the state. “Right now we have nine AEA districts, nine chiefs and they were making on an average when you look at their total compensation package about $310,000 each,” Reynolds says. “We don’t need nine. We’re a small state.”

Reynolds says her realignment will let local school districts choose whether to continue using A-E-A services, hire their own staff, or find a private vendor with the combination of state, federal and local property taxes that under current law automatically funneled to the A-E-As.  “Iowa students with disabilities ranked 30th or below in nine out of 12 assessments over the last five years and over the last 20 years students with disabilities have been on an average under-performing compared to kids across the country — students with disabilities,” Reynolds says. “And so it’s time that we do something to the system that can improve the scores and accountability and help these children.”

Reynolds made her comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that will be broadcast tonight (Friday) on Iowa P-B-S.