Boosting student achievement is central to achieving our goal of building a high-skill, high-wage economy and strengthening Iowa’s middle class.
However, it’ll be hard to reach that goal if the amount our state spends per student continues to fall compared to other states. Iowa now spends $1,500 LESS per student than the national average. In just 12 months, we fell from 31st to 37th in the country when it comes to how much our state spends on each student.
Parents, teachers and school administrators want to provide a high-quality education, but local school budgets increasingly force them to offer the bare minimum. That doesn’t make sense when the state’s rainy day and reserve funds are full.
Senate Democrats want to do right by Iowa students. That’s why we’ve proposed a 6 percent increase in basic school funding. It would provide an additional $196 million to buy textbooks, heat classrooms, pay salaries and purchase other day-to-day necessities that keep the school doors open. Best of all, our plan would not increase local property taxes, thanks to a special $26.2 million state appropriation.
This is something we need to vote on soon. In 1995, Governor Branstad signed a law that basic school funding must be set 18 months ahead of time. State law requires that we decide on basic funding for the 2015-16 school year within the next couple of weeks. I’m pushing to meet the February 13 deadline and give local schools the confidence they need to set their budgets. Unfortunately, some legislators and the Governor have said they don’t intend to take any action this year.
When the state is an unreliable partner to local schools, student achievement suffers. If we want to keep good teachers and small class sizes, we must pay for them, or Iowa risks falling farther behind other states. That is not the way to strengthen Iowa’s middle class.
To read our school funding bills, see SSB 3105, SSB 3106 and SSB 3107 on the Iowa Legislature’s website.