The Iowa Senate recently passed a bill to increase funding for public schools.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says the Senate Republicans are proposing a 1.75 percent increase for the State Supplemental Aid (SSA) of additional money for the next school year. He states that Governor Kim Reynolds is lobbying for a two percent increase, a difference of $20 million. He talks about why the Senate gave its initial percentage lower than the governor’s proposal.

“That we like to put money in other areas as well with education, whether that’s maybe a little extra for paraeducators, or transportation equity, or things like that.”  

Green talks about another aspect with public education in general.

“The big issue is that the enrollment for k-12 in Iowa for public schools has gone down, so like the actual added new money into public schools is going to be somewhere around $30 million when it comes to new dollars into SSA for k-12. So that’s what’s going to be kind of concerning to most superintendents across the state is their enrollment situation. So that’s something that’s outside of the legislature’s concern.”      

Opponents of both proposals are claiming that the percentages are well below even the inflation rate and are not keeping up with the cost of living. The Iowa House has yet to pass a bill with its SSA funding increase. The Iowa Legislature is supposed to pass a bill for an SSA increase within 30 days of the beginning of the session, which is later this week.