Another year of inadequate state funding for K-12 schools will result in larger class sizes. That’s what school administrators tell us in a new survey.
Superintendents, principals and other school officials completed the survey in recent weeks to help us better understand the consequences of shortchanging public schools, and to determine the impact of the Governor’s veto last summer of bipartisan school funding.
Underfunding local schools limits educational opportunity for our students. That’s bad for Iowa’s future at a time when business leaders say Iowa needs more skilled workers just to fill current job openings. When we underfund education, we undermine our state’s economy and the ability of Iowa families to get ahead.
In addition to packing more students into classrooms, school leaders say underfunding schools will force them to:
- Delay purchasing books and classroom materials (77 percent of respondents).
- Leave positions unfilled (71 percent).
- Delay new technology purchases (56 percent).
- Cut back on programs that help kids learn to read (43 percent).
An increase of at least 4 percent in basic state aid to schools is what’s needed for the next school year to avoid these types of drastic cuts, according 88 percent of school leaders who responded to the survey.
It’s time to make public schools a bipartisan priority of the Legislature again. We can afford to do it. Our state savings accounts are full at $719 million. That’s a record high level, equal 10 percent of state budget. In addition, we expect to end the year with a surplus of $264 million.
To view complete results from the school administrator survey, go to http://iowahouse.org/pdf/1-16schoolleader-survey-webversion.pdf.