School Funding: Still a Guessing Game

This blog post was submitted for publication in the Friday, February 19 edition of the Traer Star Clipper.

Another deadline has passed without a resolution for Iowa’s schools. Last week was the Iowa Legislature’s self-imposed deadline to resolve the issue of how much general fund financial support to provide for public schools in the coming fiscal year. Long before the legislature convened on January 11th, the governor and legislators from both parties were talking about the importance of following the law this year by setting the level of Supplemental State Aid (SSA) within the first 30 days of the session. The first 30 days of the session have now passed, and an agreement has not been reached on SSA.  Schools across the state have important decisions to make regarding whether to keep or cut programs, services, and staff.

Each April, school boards across the state are required by law to approve a budget for the coming year. Last April, the North Tama board was forced to approve a budget for the coming school year without knowing how much money would be appropriated for their operations. Finally in July, Iowa’s school boards learned that per pupil SSA would increase by 1.25%, and that a large amount of one-time funding that had been approved by the legislature had been vetoed by the governor.

For North Tama, the 1.25% per-student increase in SSA translated into an a $72,000 loss due to our decrease in enrollment, and an additional $53,931 was lost due to the governor’s veto of the one-time funding. This loss of funding has presented significant challenges for North Tama and similar districts. The challenge was made even greater for Iowa’s schools because the news of the veto and Supplemental State Aid didn’t come until the fiscal year had already started, nearly three months after districts were required to pass their budgets.

Remember earlier in this article when I mentioned that the law says the legislature has to set the level of SSA within the first 30 days they are in session? The truth is, I was simplifying my description of that law for those readers who may not read past the first paragraph. If you’ve continued to read this far into my article, you’re ready to hear the whole story about the Iowa law: The SSA they are supposed to be setting is the level for the 2018 fiscal year! That’s right, lawmakers are supposed to set Supplemental State Aid TWO years in advance, so they should have released the rate for the 2018 fiscal year last week.  According to the law, we should have already known the state aid level for next year since LAST FEBRUARY. Now, here we are a year late. We still don’t know, and we don’t know when we will know.  Our budget development may once again be a “guessing game.”  

So what is the budget outlook for North Tama for the coming year?  Since the legislature has made this a guessing game, I suppose we need to look for some clues so we can at least make an educated guess. The Iowa House recently released budget targets that maintain a 2% increase to SSA, while many in the Iowa Senate are promoting 4 percent. Governor Branstad originally proposed a 2.45% increase, but more recently he has said this amount would be a “stretch” due to decreased revenue estimates. If the legislature would happen to complete their session without reaching a compromise, the funding increase would be ZERO percent. Under ANY of these scenarios, North Tama will have another LOSS of funding due to our continued declining enrollment. That’s right...whether our per-student funding increases by 0%, 2%, 2.45%, or even if it increases by 4%, North Tama will experience a DECREASE in funding next year.  

It is our responsibility and our obligation to provide a quality education for all North Tama students. We need to be able to plan strategically as we make important decisions for next year and the coming years. We know that funding will be down even with an increase in state aid due to our loss of students. Difficult choices may need to be made. It would be so helpful to know HOW MUCH funding we will lose next year...and we would know this if the legislature would have simply followed the law in the same way they expect school districts and every citizen to follow the law. Since they haven’t followed the law, the least they can do is end our “guessing game” by working together to reach a compromise on school funding for next year right away. School districts must live by the rules. We need the Iowa Legislature to do the same.

For information on how to contact Senator Steve Sodders, who represents the entire North Tama district in the Iowa Senate, click here. (Includes email, postal address, and telephone.)  


For information on how to contact Representative Dean Fisher, who represents the entire North Tama district in the Iowa House of Representatives, click here.  (Includes email, postal address, and telephone.)  


For information on how to contact the office of Governor Terry Branstad, click here. (Includes postal address, telephone, and a way to register your opinion online.)