(Radio Iowa) – This Thursday is the legal deadline for the legislature to decide how much the state will spend on K-12 schools next year. That deadline is routinely missed, however. And House Republicans have yet to reveal their initial offer in the negotiations. In January, Governor Reynolds suggested a state funding increase of two percent. Last week, Senate Republicans suggested slightly less. Michelle Johnson of the Iowa Association of School Boards says that figure does not address the inflationary costs school districts face.

“1.75% just does not mean new money for a lot of districts,” she said. “…Utilities and then insurance costs go way up every year, so a lot of this new money — if they do get it — is eaten up by those costs, not to mention we have increased minimum teacher salaries that we have to meet each year.” Any person hired to start teaching in the 2026-27 school year must be paid a salary of at least 50-thousand dollars and any teacher with 12 years of experience must be paid at least 60-thousand dollars.

A spokesman for the School Administrators of Iowa and Rural School Advocates of Iowa says there’s another percentage lawmakers should consider. Contract negotiations over teacher pay are tied to the Consumer Price Index, which is just under three percent. Melissa Peterson of the Iowa State Education Association says the state teachers union is calling for at least a five percent increase in state support of school.

“I think it’s really important that we acknowledge what happens when school districts are inadequately funded,” she said. It means our class sizes grow. It means we have staff reductions. It means we have program reductions.” Joshua Brown, a middle school teacher from Des Moines, is president of the Iowa State Education Association. He says the national reputation of Iowa’s K-12 system is suffering because Republican lawmakers are over-emphasizing the state-funded Education Savings Accounts that cover private school expenses.

“Our status has shifted from a top-tier academic performer to one in which private school vouchers defines excellence,” Brown says, “and our traditional academic rankings have slipped to the middle of the pack.”

In the current year, every private school student with an Education Savings Account got nearly eight-thousand dollars in state money and public school districts got the same amount for each student enrolled.