House Speaker Pat Grassley says he and other Republicans in the Iowa House are standing firm on their plan to provide more money to K-12 schools than Governor Reynolds and Senate Republicans propose.
“We’re still having conversations with the Senate and the governor. We’ve been pretty clear I think from the House perspective, as I’ve been sharing with the Senate and the governor that we feel pretty strongly about the package of items we’ve put together. At some point I think that could resolve itself with…decising what should be a part of the conversation moving forward, what shouldn’t be,” Grassley told reporters. “At this point in time, the feedback I’ve gotten from our (House Republican) caucus is they want us to hold strong in our position.”
House Republicans have voted to provide more money to help cover busing costs in geographically large school districts and a one-time “infusion” of $22.6 million to help schools cover expenses that have been pushed higher due to inflation. House Republicans also propose letting smaller school districts share more administrative staff, as well as a general per pupil spending level that’s slightly higher than the 2% increase Governor Reynolds and Senate Republicans propose.
“Obviously the senate and the governor being at two, I think a lot of schools are making decisions at two,” Grassley said Monday, “but we’re holding tight at this point because we feel strongly about some of those other items.”
School districts must hold public hearings on budget plans and school boards must adopt a budget for the next academic year by April 30.
Minority Democrats in the legislature say schools need at least a 5% increase in per pupil funding from the state.