The Iowa Legislature has passed its respective bills to increase a funding mechanism for public schools. 

Sources say, the Iowa House passed a 2.25 percent State Supplemental Aid bill, whereas the Senate passed a two percent increase. District 24 Senator Jesse Green says he was in favor of increasing SSA to two percent, which is the additional funding that school districts receive every year to use within their budgets. Green points out that nearly every school district within the 24th District was above the seven percent recommendation of the budget in their unspent balance, which means they are in good financially. He explains another reason for siding with the proposed rate and ultimately passing through the Senate.

“We got to keep in mind the total education number, there’s going to be over $235 million in new spending in k-12 education. And that is more than what we added last year.” 

Green believes that there are other ways to save on school budgets, including a proposed teacher loan repayment program and transportation equity. Last year’s rate was 2.5 percent for SSA.