Iowa school districts will receive a 3 percent funding boost, about $107 million, in state aid.  

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the increase into law Tuesday, which will total state funding to $3.9 billion — almost half of the state’s annual budget expenditures. 

The bill, Senate File 192, was originally introduced with a 2 percent funding increase. After an amendment passed during the committee process, it was amended to a 3 percent allowable growth. 

Democrats attempted to raise funds to 5.9 percent, but all amendments to the bill failed along mostly partisan lines. 

Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from West Des Moines and the Senate Democrats Whip, said the 3 percent funding increase was not enough. 

“The school funding bill that passed the House today and the Senate last week fails to  meet the needs facing students and teachers in districts across Iowa,” Trone Garriott said in a news release Tuesday. “That’s especially true in rural Iowa, where 72 districts will actually lose state funding compared to the current year.”

Democrats say the increases fail to keep up with record-high inflation and the increase in fixed costs for school districts. Iowa’s school funding has increased by a little over 2 percent for the past decade, according to Legislative Services Agency data. 

Republicans say that there has been a large increase in state funding for Iowa’s schools since 2012, almost $1.9 billion, according to Reynolds’ office. According to the Iowa Department of Management, the state spent $2.476 billion on state aid in 2012 and in 2023 the state will spend $3.5 billion in state spending on education aid. 

“This investment represents our commitment to an excellent education system for all Iowans,” Reynolds said in a news release on Tuesday.