Iowa students doing well despite funding disputes

DES MOINES - While state lawmakers remain deadlocked in a weekslong donnybrook over how much to spend on kindergarten-through-grade-12 public education, the most basic metrics show a mixed bag when Iowa's student results and education resources over the past 15 years are compared to the national average.

ACT scores, graduation rates, per-pupil state spending and teacher salaries in Iowa all have remained steady over the past decade and a half, data show.

But one state education leader says the students represented in those measurements benefited from years of steady state funding while they were young, and the effect of recent funding disputes will not be felt until years down the road when today's younger students graduate.

Data covering the past 15 years show:

' Iowa students' ACT scores have remained mostly flat. In fact, their average score of 22.0 and relation to the national average - 104.8 percent - were the same in 2014 as they were in 2000.

' Iowa high school students graduated at a consistent rate between 2004 and 2013, according to U.S. Department of Education data. In 2004, 89.8 percent of Iowa students graduated from high school. In 2013, 89.7 percent graduated.

' Iowa teacher salaries have fared better than the national average. In 2000, Iowa's annual teacher salary was 85.3 percent of the national average. In 2014, the average Iowa teacher salary of $52,032 was 91.8 percent of the national average, according to data from the National Education Association.

' The number of students per teacher - educators say smaller class sizes are critical to student performance - has increased slightly since 2003, from 13.8 per teacher in 2003 to 14.3 in 2013, according to the National Education Association.

' As for that big number state legislators are endlessly debating - Iowa's state per-pupil spending compared to the national average has fallen since 2000, but only slightly, according to U.S. Census data. In 2000, the state of Iowa's K-12 per-pupil spending was 95.8 percent of the national average. In 2012, the last year for which census data is available, Iowa's per-pupil spending was 94.6 percent of the national average.

Because of the limited data, these figures do not include the impact of lower-than-average K-12 state funding levels between 2012 and 2014.

'Our kids that are graduating and taking the ACT now were benefiting from strong (state school funding) as they went through elementary school and junior high, even,” said Tammy Wawro, president of the Iowa State Education Association, an education advocacy organization. 'We won't know what the impact these few years of inadequate funding will have.”

Iowa's state school funding increases have not been stable in recent years.

' From 1973 to 1999, a span of 27 years, school funding increased at a rate of less than 3 percent only three times, or 11.1 percent.

' From 2000 to 2015, a span of 16 years, school funding increased at a rate of less than 3 percent seven times, or 43.8 percent.

It appears likely 2016 will be an eighth year with a funding increase below 3 percent. Gov. Terry Branstad and his Republican colleagues in the House have proposed a 1.25 percent increase in school funding, while Democrats, in an attempt to compromise, have twice lowered their proposal, starting at 6 percent and now down to 2.625 percent.

Branstad and Statehouse Republicans insist education is a top priority. Branstad frequently cites additional state funds that go to specific education programs, such as the new teacher leadership program, and Republicans in control of the Iowa House say even at a 1.25-percent increase, K-12 education would receive roughly 55 percent of the new funds available in next year's budget.

'This is a mathematical problem: The state only has so much money,” Republican House Speaker Kraig Paulsen said recently.

What Republicans repeatedly say what they will not do is expand the budget to include unused funds from the previous year or the state's reserve accounts.

Democrats in control of the Iowa Senate say they are willing to use those unused funds to help school districts avoid staff layoffs, program cuts and larger class sizes.

'Our budget keeps education as the top priority in the state of Iowa,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal said. 'The House Republican budget does not.”

If school funding is passed at 1.25 percent, that will make a total increase of 9.25 percent over the past five years, which is less than half the 20 percent in total increases over the five years before that.

That is what makes Wawro nervous.

'Quite frankly, we haven't seen this dramatic a lack of funding ever,” Wawro said. 'So, I don't think we can tell” how it will impact student performance.

Lisa Bartusek, executive director of the Iowa Association of School Boards, said Iowa's ACT scores and graduation rates are success stories, but do not tell the whole story. She said some schools perform exceptionally and others lag behind, for myriad reasons.

Bartusek also said Iowa students continue to graduate at high levels and continue to perform well in the classroom in spite of state funding debates because of the work of local educators and board members.

'We work every week with local school districts, and I see - in my personal opinion - the heroic efforts that school leaders - board members, principals, teachers - make to improve results even in challenging times,” Bartusek said. 'My belief is those graduation rates continue to inch up and those other measurements …

because local leaders are figuring out how to get the job done even when resources aren't quite as adequate as they would like.”