Iowa’s public schools will get an additional 60-million dollars in general state aid for the school year that begins in September 2002. The republican-controlled Iowa House and Senate approved the move yesterday. It’s the level democrat Governor Tom Vilsack sought. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Millage of Bettendorf says schools need the money for priority areas. He says schools are also facing increases costs for utilities and increasing pressure to raise teacher salaries.Nancy Boettger of Harlan, chair of the Senate Education Committee, says school budgets are tight.Millage says Iowa’s K-through-12 public schools get a huge chunk of the state’s budget.In total, the state will give Iowa’s public elementary, junior- and senior high schools about two billion dollars for the 2002/2003 school year.
