Iowa House lawmakers advanced an increase in state funding to schools — that is higher than both the governor’s and Senate lawmakers’ proposal — in an effort to dull the effects of inflation on school budgets Monday.
The Iowa House Appropriations Committee voted in a party-line vote to move House Study Bill 138 out of committee Monday afternoon. The proposal would increase the amount of state funding to schools by 2.25 percent and appropriate a one-time payment of $22.6 million, divided among schools based on their enrollment, to help with inflationary costs.
The proposal would also appropriate $5.8 million to address equity in per pupil funding, $5.3 million to address equity in transportation costs, and $1 million for operational sharing funding.
The proposal is a fourth of a percent more than the Senate’s and the governor’s proposal of a two percent per pupil funding increase, which advocates say wouldn’t catch up with inflation over the past year.
Advocates said during a hearing on the bill Monday that they appreciate the higher number proposed by House Republicans, but the number still won’t keep up with inflation, and schools can’t combat their rising costs with a one-time payment.
“I do prefer this greatly to the Senate version, but we do think that we can do better,” Melissa Petersen, a lobbyist for the Iowa State Education Association, the state’s teacher union, said on Monday. “We’re still not going to enable districts to keep up with the cost of just doing business, and so I would ask you to hold out as long as you possibly can in this process for as many resources as possible.”
Iowa Rep. Amy Nielsen, D-North Liberty, said the increase wouldn’t help schools deal with inflationary pressures, and one-time money can’t solve the issues schools are facing.
“The 2.25 percent is woefully inadequate once again,” Nielsen said. “And I have a real problem with sending one-time money to the schools. You just can’t solve an ongoing problem with one-time money.”
Iowa Rep. Dan Gehlbach, R-Urbandale, said the bill would appropriate $149 million in new money to Iowa’s public schools.
One of the largest shares of the state budget is state funding to schools which would be $3.9 billion under the House Republicans’ proposal.