Senate approves 2 percent base budget increase for K-12 schools next year

DES MOINES – Majority Democrats in the Iowa Senate voted Wednesday night to boost per-pupil funding for K-12 schools by 2 percent for the 2011-12 school year, putting them at odds with Gov. Terry Branstad and legislative Republicans who say the state cannot afford to increase base funding for education for the next two fiscal years.

“We can afford to do the right thing for Iowa kids,” said Sen. Mary Jo Wilhelm, D-Cresco, before senators voted 26-24 to approve Senate File 167, a measure designed to pump $280.4 million worth of state aid into the foundation formula – including nearly $216 million to “backfill” costs shifted to property taxpayers and local schools in the aftermath of former Gov. Chet Culver's 10 percent across-the-board budget cut in October 2009. She called 2 percent “a modest but essential” increase for schools struggling with rising costs.

Currently, the state pays $5,883 for each student that attends elementary and secondary schools in Iowa's 359 public districts. A 2 percent increase in allowable growth would raise that per-pupil spending by $118 and bring the total for fiscal 2012 to $6,001. The 2 percent boost would carry a $51.1 million increased share in property taxes raised for K-12 education, while a no growth level for the next two years – which is the Republican position – would trigger a $70 million property tax increase based on a complicated school foundation aid formula that includes a budget guarantee for the 277 school districts with declining enrollments.

Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck, R-Dixon, countered majority-party arguments by pointing out that the state repeatedly has over-committed its allowable growth rate to schools in recent years only to turn around and reduce the allotments, causing problems for local school administrators and forcing property tax increases to cover the lost state dollars. He said it would be better for the state to promise no new money now and come back later with an increase “when you know you have more money.”

Senate GOP Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton said the floor debate primarily focused on the budget situation and how much the state could afford to pay while there was a “glaring omission” about the needs of Iowa's schoolchildren and the lack of accountability over the decline in student achievement despite yearly investments of several billion dollars. He said that was backed up by a recent Wall Street Journal ranking that put Iowa among the 10 worst states losing the education race.

“We had better start talking about the kids and student achievement,” he said. “We cannot afford to graduate seniors who cannot read their diplomas. It isn't about always throwing more money and wishing and hoping that it works its way out because it hasn't. We'd better get serious and more money is not the answer.”

Wilhelm pointed to concerns voiced by school superintendents who warned zero allowable growth likely would lead to laying off teachers and staff, increasing class sizes and raising property taxes.

“Education is a top priority for Iowa families and it should be a top priority to us as legislators,” she said. “This money will buy textbooks, heat classrooms, power the lights, fuel buses, pay salaries. This is a fiscally responsible increase that maintains our commitment to top-notch schools all across our state.”

Senators also voted 26-24 to boost “categorical” funding to schools by 2 percent for things like teacher pay, class-size reductions, reading programs and professional development, Sen. Steve Sodders, D-State Center, said the money has enabled Iowa to raise teacher pay from 47th nationally to 26th overall and to stop “packing kids in classrooms like sardines.”

Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, said school superintendents he has talked to “are realistic enough to know it's a negotiating process” going on at the Statehouse, and he and other said school officials who must certify fiscal 2012 budgets next month are proceeding with a zero growth expectation that can be modified later if Branstad, the GOP-led House and legislative Democrats who hold sway over the Senate can settle on a compromise.

“They want to make sure that what we promise is what we deliver,” Bartz said.

Earlier Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee voted along party lines to indefinitely delay a decision on setting the allowable growth rate for fiscal 2013. The Iowa House voted last week to set allowable growth at zero percent for the next two fiscal years and to provide the $216 million in state funding needed to “backfill” costs that were shifted to local property taxpayers and schools when the state could not afford to fully fund the spending authority given to K-12 districts.