Hite Capitol Update: 02/14/19

Rep. Dustin Hite (R-District 79)

Rep. Dustin Hite (R-District 79)

by Rep. Dustin Hite

Another busy week has flown by at the Statehouse, and Iowa’s lawmakers are hard at work. Education spending once again was a top priority in the House.That is why earlier this week the House passed its first couple bills of this Session, both of which set education funding for the year. These bills provide $90 million new dollars to schools for the upcoming school year.

Per Student Funding Increases

The first bill passed was HF 306, which set Supplemental State Aid (SSA) at 2.06%. This is the percentage by which the per pupil amount increases and is the basis for school funding in Iowa. It increased from $6,736 to $6,880 per student, a $144 per student increase. This means for the average class of around 25 students, each class will see an additional $3,600 next year.
The bill had the support from the Iowa Association of School Boards, the School Administrators of Iowa, the Rural School Advocates of Iowa, and the Urban Education Network of Iowa and no opposition from interest groups.

Transportation Funding and Inequities

The second bill, HF 307, provides funding to help districts fix some “inequities” that exist in Iowa school funding. The first, transportation, saw a $19 million appropriation into a permanent fund to help districts with their transportation costs. Currently school districts pay for the cost of transporting students to school out of their general fund, meaning higher transportation costs leaves less money for the classroom. The funding goes to districts with the highest costs, with the goal to eventually bring those districts down to the statewide average of $328 per student. The $19 million for next year is a $7.8 million increase over this current year’s $11.2 million appropriation for these costs.

Additionally, another inequity exists with how much each district is allowed by law to spend per student. Due to a decades old decision by the legislature some districts have a higher authority for spending. About half the districts in the state are up to $170 per student behind those with the highest authority. The legislature closed this gap a bit last year with a $5 bump per student and is making that same effort this year with another $5 bump. This narrows the gap to $165 per student from highest to lowest. This years’ $5 increase will cost the state about $2.9 million. Overall, HF 307 had bipartisan support, and passed 99-1.

Finally, I would like to recognize some individuals that came to Des Moines from the district this week. Sam and Ross Vande Weerd and Russ Vanhemert came to visit from Pella. Also, Ann Smith and Deann De Groot from OACDG and MCARD came for a tour of the Capitol. Thank you all for the visit, and I welcome anyone coming to Des Moines later in session to meet with me.

Posted by on Feb 15 2019. Filed under Local News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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