The Iowa House and Senate recently agreed on the State Supplemental Aid for k-12 public education.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green tells Raccoon Valley Radio the Senate’s initial proposal was 2.2-percent of additional funding through SSA, while the House’s proposal was 2.5-percent. He says they agreed on 2.4-percent, which is another $49 million of additional funding. Green points out another avenue they discussed in addition to SSA funding for schools.

“The elephant in the room is the drop in enrollment. Our SSA is based on per pupil basis, so how do we adapt to that changing circumstance? They have special one-time payment, due to the COVID situations, to schools that followed state law and were educating children, and of course there is some additional cost to that. So they applied some one-time funding to that.”

Green says they agreed on $60 per pupil for that special one-time payment. Green notes the public education funding is about 54-percent of the overall state budget, and makes up about $3.5 billion. Last year, the Legislature approved 2.3-percent SSA. School districts use that figure in determining their budgets for the next school year.