Education funding continues to divide Iowa lawmakers

DES MOINES - State lawmakers continued to disagree Thursday over how and when to fund Iowa's K-12 schools.

Senate Democrats passed a 4-percent school funding increase, and House Republicans passed a bill that delays the timeline for when school funding must be set.

Both proposals were met with unanimous opposition from the opposite party.

Democrats, who hold the majority in the Senate, approved the 4 percent increase roughly one week after House Republicans passed a 1.25 percent increase. If the Democrats' proposal passes the full Senate as expected, the two sides will have to negotiate the funding level.

'This is all about getting children the quality education that we all believe they need to have,” Sen. Tod Bowman, D-Maquoketa, said of the 4 percent increase. 'This bill is basically overdue. It's one that we want to get done and sent to the governor's desk.”

The Democrats' proposal would increase state school funding in the next fiscal year by $194.4 million, plus an additional $17.8 million to prevent a property tax increase, Bowman said.

While some Democratic state lawmakers expressed concern that the funding level could tie up negotiators for the bulk of the legislative session, Bowman was more optimistic.

'We proposed 6 percent last year and they proposed zero percent. This year they're at 1.25 and we're at 4. So we're getting closer. That's the good news,” Bowman said. 'I'm hopeful we can work together.”

Democrats also approved a 4 percent school funding increase for the following fiscal year, which would add an additional $198.3 million, plus $18.8 million for property tax relief, Bowman said.

Republicans in the House have called for a 2.45 percent increase for the following fiscal year, but they do not plan to introduce that legislation until later in this session.

That runs afoul of current state law, which Republicans tried to change Thursday. They passed a bill -- with no Democratic support -- that requires school funding be set every other year, with the first fiscal year set early in the legislative session and the second fiscal year set later in the session.

'The further out you are committing dollars, the greater chance you will misread what is going on in the economy and increase your chance of being caught short. The closer you can match your spending with actual revenue generation, the greater your probability of not being caught short,” said Rep. Ron Jorgenson, R-Sioux City. 'I'm not comfortable setting a rate two years out until we've had a chance to review the budget in detail.”

Democrats argued that moving the deadlines creates issues for school districts' budgeting purposes and said the law was written to give education the first slice of the budgetary pie.

'This bill, like a bad penny, keeps showing up every year,” Sen. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, said. 'The bill does nothing to help schools. Every year schools have deadlines, and this bill doesn't take those deadlines into account at all.”