The Iowa Legislature recently passed the additional funding for public education bill for next school year.

The House and Senate agreed on a two percent increase of State Supplemental Aid (SSA) for k-12 public education, or about $111 million of new money. Those that opposed the bill argue that the SSA increase isn’t enough to cover the rising cost of living and the inflation rate. 

House District 47 Representative Carter Nordman provides context to the opposition and states that when looking at public education in the state through a larger lens of the past ten years, education spending has increased by 37 percent, while inflation has seen a 35 percent jump. 

“If you look at the bigger picture, we’ve actually been ahead of inflation when it comes to education funding. So, you also look at the enrollment, enrollment is down yet the amount of staff and teachers we have is up over the last ten years.” 

Representative Nordman points out last school year, public schools spent $23,700 per k-12 student, with an average class size of 20 students, that would mean $474,000 was spent per classroom. He notes that the average teacher salary in Iowa is $63,500, then you include benefits which now makes it $85,000, he claims $389,000 of non-teacher salary was spent per classroom. Nordman pushes the funding map out further with the total amount of public education across the country, when considering all the funding mechanisms including local, state and federal, was $11.6 billion. 

“So we spend a significant amount of money on public education, as we absolutely should. Education is the foundation of our society, in my opinion. I’m a product of public education, here in House District 47, I am proud of that, we should be proud of our public schools. But, I did just want to make sure that the context was out there of just how much money we spend on education in Iowa.”

The Iowa House originally proposed a 2.25 percent SSA increase, while the Senate initially had 1.75 percent, and Governor Kim Reynolds had proposed two percent. Once the bill becomes law, school districts will receive the additional money for the 2026-27 school year.