The Iowa Legislature has finalized the percentage increase in State Supplemental Aid for public school districts. 

The SSA rate that was agreed upon by both the Iowa House and Senate and was sent to Governor Kim Reynolds to sign into law was an increase of two-percent. The SSA is additional funding that public school districts can receive to use within their budgets. District 24 Senator Jesse Green says the total amount that was approved was $240 million, which was a $5 million difference from the Senate’s original proposal. However, he describes other factors that were used to make up that $5 million difference.

“We increased transportation equity, which is great for rural schools. They have more transportation costs than urban districts, so we target some dollars towards that. We also targeted some more dollars to operational sharing and the weightings of that, so that directly impacts rural Iowa. And then lastly, we added $5 per pupil on the state formula for that aspect. So that’s what kind of makes up that extra $5 million from the original proposal.”

Greene County School District Superintendent Brett Abbotts says that breaks down to about $321,000 of new money with the SSA increased rate and their increase in enrollment as he shares his thoughts on the overall increase from the state.

“Two-percent for us was okay. Obviously, we always advocate for more, especially when it comes to public schools. I know I can’t say that for every school district. We just happen to be in a fortunate situation where we did have an increase in enrollment, so I feel okay where we are financially kind of moving forward here.”   

Senator Green adds that this was a fiscally responsible decision by the legislature, but he voices concern about the timing of passing the bill, due to a majority of school districts already certifying their budgets for the next fiscal year, which are due to the state by the end of April.