Governor Tom Vilsack says the Republican plan for state aid to schools is 20-million dollars short. Vilsack says the Legislature has responded with a first step, but not a complete step. Republicans say they intend to provide about 109 million more dollars to Iowa’s public schools for the academic year that begins in August. Vilsack has proposed more spending on schools, extra spending financed — in part — by tax increases.Vilsack says the Legislature is short of what’s needed to maintain the state’s commitment to Iowa school kids. Vilsack made his comments this morning during a visit to a Des Moines elementary school. Republican legislators say they intend to send Iowa’s K-through-12 public schools nearly 45 million dollars in additional state aid in the 2005/2006 school year. That’s a quarter of what schools had been requesting, and less than what democrat Governor Tom Vilsack recommended. But Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says there’s only so much money to go around. He says they don’t have the luxury of just dealing with K-12 education, he says they have an entire budget to put together. G-O-P lawmakers say this is the last year they want to set state aid to schools so far in advance.
