The Iowa legislature has gone into extra innings for its 2025 session, and the roughly $9 billion proposed state budget is the main obstacle to finishing it up.

The lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds are haggling over big, big numbers trying to get a spending plan hammered out. We would like to call their attention to one spending category that is kind of small by state budget standards but pays big, big dividends for our state.

That spending category is state support for Iowa’s community colleges.

Those 15 institutions now receive a total of $235.8 million from the state.

The colleges asked for an additional $12 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Right now, Reynolds and the state Senate are proposing no additional money.

The House of Representatives is offering $8 million in additional money.

We call on the governor and the Senate to match the House figure.

Here’s why: the community colleges are a good deal for state taxpayers and they train people who by and large stay in the state,

The Regents institutions – University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa – educate about 65,000 students.

To help them do that, the universities receive $600 million from the state government.

The community colleges educate about 123,000 students.

To help them do that, they receive $235.8 million.

So the community colleges educate about twice as many students for less than half the cost to the taxpayers.

Community college graduates tend to stay in Iowa and fill key jobs in factories, health care facilities and just about every other business and industry.

About 90 percent of community college graduates stay in Iowa.

About 70 percent of Iowa Central Community College graduates not only stay in Iowa, they stay right in Webster County and the surrounding eight counties.

We have yet to see any figures from the Regents institutions showing that so many of their graduates stick around Iowa.

A state investment in community colleges truly is using Iowa tax dollars to train Iowans.

It just makes sense to give the community colleges the additional $8 million.

We ask state Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to help get the community colleges the money they need.

The Messenger also urges Reynolds and all the senators to join with the House of Representatives to properly fund the community colleges.