Gridlock on school spending was the topic of choice at an Eggs and Issues Breakfast sponsored by the Greater Burlington Partnership on Saturday.
Democratic Senator Tom Courtney, Democratic Representative Dennis Cohoon, and Republican Representative Tom Sands joined community members and civic leaders for the breakfast.
School spending in the Iowa Legislature has been at a deadlock. At issue: allowable growth, or, how much more money schools will be getting this year than last year. Republicans are sticking tight to 1.25% allowable growth, but Democrats would like to push the envelope, prefering a number around 4%. Attempts at compromise have, so far, failed.
This leaves school districts in quite the condundrum. Gary Delancey is the Superintendent at the Danville School District, he suggested kepping allowable growth at 1.25% but giving districts the spending authority to spend what they need out of reserve funds in order to meet budget. Legislators thought it was a good idea, but not one that’s tenable in the short term. Delancey disagreed.
“Help us this year. There are going to have to be decisions made this year.” Delancey said, “August 30th is not that far away, that’s when we’ll have to pink slip, and we havent even started negotiations yet. We haven’t started negotiations because I don’t know what to start talking about.”
Burlington School Superintendent Pat Coen spoke on the KBUR Talkshow on Monday. He offered words of warning, but said that Delancey’s idea would work.
“It would [work] in the long term, but as you spend down your reserves, it dwindles your rainy day funding and you run closer to running negative cash. If you run negative cash for two years, they can come and shut down your school,” said Coen.
Legislators can’t leave Des Moines until the budget issue is solved.
