School-BusThere was an official meeting today among 10 members of the House and Senate assembled to find a compromise on state school funding, but the negotiations remain stalled.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, says the GOP is sticking with its proposal to boost general state aid to public K-12 schools by 1.25 percent.

“We should be able to get this done. We need to get it done. We’ve tried to get it done,” Paulsen says. “They can go through all the hyperbole all they want, but the reality of it is…we’ve had trouble scheduling these meetings. I mean, it’s very frustrating.”

Democrats say schools are struggling and Democrats are sticking with their proposal to raise state aid for schools by four percent for the school year that starts this fall.

Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal says, “At 1.25 percent we’re going to start sacrificing what Iowa does incredibly well and that is graduate a greater percent of the student population than any state in the union and that will squander our economic opportunity in this state for the future.”

March 15th is the first day Iowa school districts can offer new contracts to teachers and administrators, but school leaders say without knowing how much per pupil spending they’ll get from the state, many of those decisions are in limbo. April 15th is the day school districts are required to certify the entire budget for the following academic year.