Governor Reynolds and her fellow Republicans in the House and Senate have agreed to raise general state support of public schools by 160 dollars per student. Republican Representative Dan Gelbach of Urbandale says it will amount to nearly 82-hundred dollars per student. “The state is now going to allocate…almost $4 billion in funding to our public schools,” Gelbach said. “…Factor in local property taxes…and you add on all federal funds and the SAVE penny, which is the Local Option Sales Tax for school infrastruture, our schools are operating with total resources exceeding $11 billion annually.” The plan is slightly more than Senate Republicans originally suggested and slightly less than House Republicans proposed. It will provide the two percent per pupil spending increase Governor Reynolds called for in January. House Democrats say this is the 9th year out of 10 that state funding for public schools fails to keep pace with inflation.
