Iowa Senate Panel Advances 1.75% Per-Pupil Spending Increase for K-12 Schools

Be the reason future generations know what mattered in Decorah. Fund Decorah News today. Iowa Republicans senators said negotiations are ongoing but they were moving forward Tuesday with legislation setting a 1.75% per-pupil spending increase to "start the conversation" on school funding. Senate Study Bill 3100 proposes setting a 1.75% Supplemental State Aid rate for the 2026-2027 school year. This per-pupil funding increase for K-12 students proposed by Senate Republicans is below Gov. Kim Reynolds' proposal of 2% — and below the Iowa State Education Association's request for a 5% increase. Melissa Peterson, the ISEA legislative and policy director, told lawmakers at the subcommittee meeting that a 1.75% increase is "just not enough" for school districts as they try to keep up with inflation and other rising costs, including the teacher pay increases lawmakers approved in 2024. "I think it's really important that we acknowledge what happens when school districts are inadequately funded," Peterson told lawmakers. "It means our class sizes grow. It means we have fewer staff positions. It means we have program reduction. It means we have older material. It means our buildings are less safe." Rachella Dravis, a retired teacher and Fort Madison school board member, said legislators should understand the educational landscape is different than what it looked like in previous decades. She said schools are trying to keep up and provide students with the tools they need to succeed, "but we can't do things different without the financial backing." She said these investments need to be considered differently from other spending choices. "We are not an assembly line, we are not a business," Dravis said. "… We are educating your children, your grandchildren. And so, every single student that I have had over my 36 years is an individual that we have to take care of. We can't take care of them as you know, 1,200 kids. We have to take care of them as individual kids." Dravis also told lawmakers providing adequate state school funding is needed to ensure taxes don't increase within their communities, saying that school boards will have to vote to increase local taxes in some cases to meet funding needs while the state works to cut these costs for Iowans. The legislation includes language setting out state dollars to schools that would be placed on budget guarantee — the system where a school district increases property taxes to meet its funding obligations when these financial needs are not met through state funding. Margaret Buckton, representing the Rural School Advocates of Iowa and Urban Education Network of Iowa, said the 1.75% rate would mean 208 school districts will go on budget guarantee. "I appreciate your willingness to pay that $47.7 million, but what's the bigger problem is next year, when you recalculate the budget guarantee — that's taken out of the system, and it resets," Buckton said. "If it went into higher SSA, it would carry forward, and it would actually do better with property taxes by lowering special (education) deficits as well as lowering the amount of burden on the budget guarantee." Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said the SSA proposal was the latest in a yearslong trend of Republicans underfunding Iowa public schools, saying state funding for public schools has not kept up with the rate of inflation for many years. "Ever since Kim Reynolds became governor, Republican funding has fallen farther and farther behind inflation," Quirmbach said in a statement. "The shortfall this year alone amounts to over $1,000 per student. More than half a billion total statewide. If we hope for a future where Iowans can compete on the world stage. Our students and our schools need and deserve better." Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, said he was critical of Democrats calling for increased education funding at the same time as some members of the minority party are raising complaints about the state's revenue shortfall under the GOP trifecta. "We are getting scolded from the left often on how we're running the state into the ground and we're spending too much," Kraayenbrink said. "But apparently we have enough more money to spend on this. So I think that's kind of counterintuitive." Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said negotiations on the SSA rate would continue, but that the Senate was "running this as early as possible" in an effort to meet the Legislature's self-imposed deadline to pass a school funding package within 30 days of the governor's budget being released. In the past two years, lawmakers have failed to pass a school funding proposal by this deadline, causing some issues for school districts and boards as they prepared budgets for the upcoming school year. In the 2026 legislative session, that deadline is Feb. 12, though there is no penalty if lawmakers fail to pass an SSA rate by that date. Evans said as a former superintendent for multiple school districts, he understood the importance of moving quickly on school funding. "Having sat in that seat myself, I wanted to know as early as possible, so we're trying to get that out and get these negotiations started so people can start. They're actually in the process of building budgets now, but they can do a better job of building those budget with some firm numbers," Evans said. "So this is a start. This is not a finish." Fresh stories, delivered! Sign up for the free DecorahNews.com newsletter and stay informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve.