Let's Not "Short-Change" Iowa's Most Important Investment

This simple graphic from the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) shows the cost per student, per day for each of the current proposals for Supplemental State Aid for schools. Whether the final result is the Iowa House of Representatives proposal of 2%, the Iowa Senate's 4% proposal, the initial 2.45% mentioned by the governor, or something in between, this graphic does a great job of illustrating the relative costs:

If you are a parent, ask yourself this simple question: "Do I expect the cost of raising my child to increase more than $1.43 per day in the coming year?" Even if you are not raising children...do you expect your own cost of living to go up more than $129 to $258 in the coming year?  If your answer is "YES," then consider the cost of educating a child. Just as your family's bills seem to increase each year, a school's cost of operation also keeps increasing. Whether it is the cost of maintaining school buildings and keeping them clean, fueling buses, purchasing instructional materials and supplies, or paying our utility bills, our costs seem to keep increasing.

The largest single cost any school has is the cost of paying the wages and salaries of the teachers and other school staff. Yes, teachers generally receive a raise each year and I would argue that in general they do deserve a raise. Even if school boards and superintendents DIDN'T want to give teachers a raise though, this really isn't possible due to Iowa's collective bargaining laws. When the cost of employing staff keeps increasing and school funding either doesn't increase or doesn't increase enough, schools have few options other than to cut staff.

School districts in Iowa have been cutting, cutting, cutting over the past few years in order to keep their schools operating in times of inadequate state funding, declining enrollment, and increased costs. Schools have become leaner, more efficient, and more creative in their approaches to meeting students' needs. But cutting, efficiency, and creativity will only go so far...we need the leaders of our state to INVEST in our children and INVEST in our future.

Iowa's educators and education supporters aren't "whining" when asking our state's leaders to support our schools. Educators and supporters of Iowa's schools aren't "greedy" when they ask for an increase in funding. Providing a world-class education for Iowa's students isn't free and it isn't cheap. It is an INVESTMENT in our children and the future of our state. Let's not "short-change" Iowa's most important investment.