Iowa House sends school funding bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds

Yahoo

08-04-2025

Iowa K-12 schools will receive a 2% per-pupil increase in state aid as part of a funding package approved Tuesday. (Photo by)
The Iowa House on Tuesday passed the state K-12 school funding package for the 2025-2026 school year and sent it to the governor's desk.
Senate File 167, passed 59-36, sets the State Supplemental Aid (SSA) rate at 2%, increasing the per-pupil funding for K-12 students by $157 from the current year. The amended bill also includes a proposed $5 bump to the State Cost Per Pupil (SCPP) to address disparities in some school districts with the District Cost Per Pupil (DCPP), and a 5% increase to the rate of funding per pupil to the transportation equity fund.
Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said during Senate debate Monday that the bill will provide 'responsible and sustainable funding' for Iowa schools, with the package providing $238.1 million in increased funding for Iowa's K-12 education system from the previous year — when including funding for public K-12 schools, charter schools and the state's Education Savings Account program — as a part of a total $4.2 billion in K-12 education spending.
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The House approval comes after lengthy negotiations between the Republicans in the two chambers over education spending. Senate Republicans initially proposed a 2% SSA rate with no additional funding components, in line with Gov. Kim Reynolds' recommendation at the beginning of the 2025 legislative session. But House Republicans proposed a slightly higher 2.25% SSA rate, alongside other funding components — some of which made it into the final bill with some changes.
The House GOP proposal included a $10 SCPP raise and an unlimited appropriation for transportation equity aid payment to address existing inequities, components that were altered but included in the Senate amendment. Other funding aspects, like a $22.6 million one-time appropriation to supplement school funding in fiscal year 2026, were not included.
House Democrats criticized Republicans, who control both chambers, for not reaching an agreement on school funding earlier. Lawmakers have a self-imposed deadline to pass school funding for the next year within 30 days of the governor's budget being released. That deadline passed in February — and school districts' deadlines to release a budget proposal for the upcoming year passed in March.
Rep. Larry McBurney, D-Urbandale, said the 2% SSA rate will not provide adequate funding to Iowa schools, and will lead to property tax increases in many Iowa communities. Under the proposal, Democrats said 159 Iowa school districts will be on the budget guarantee, a process increasing property taxes that is triggered when school districts' funding obligations cannot be met by SSA.
McBurney said House Republicans 'ultimately caved' to the Senate's lower school funding proposal, and called for his GOP colleagues in the House to not support the amended bill.
'If we're going to do it, let's do it right,' McBurney said. 'Heck, you guys have already missed the timeline by two months. What's another few weeks to get it right for our public schools?'
Rep. Dan Gehlbach, R-Urbandale, the bill's floor manager, pushed back against Democrats' criticisms, saying 'House Republicans didn't just accept the first offer on the table, we fought for more.'
'This plan isn't everything we initially voted on, but it's a hard-fought victory that moves us forward, and I'm proud of the work our leadership did to get this across the finish line,' Gehlbach said.
Gehlbach also said there will be more school funding discussions in the future, saying he hopes to run a measure in 2025 that would provide a $14 million standing appropriation for paying paraeducators in Iowa's K-12 school system.
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