This Thursday is the legal deadline for the legislature to decide how much the state will spend on K-12 schools next year. That deadline is routinely missed, however. And House Republicans have yet to reveal their initial offer in the negotiations. In January, Governor Reynolds suggested a state funding increase of two percent. Last week, Senate Republicans suggested slightly less. Michelle Johnson of the Iowa Association of School Boards says that figure does not address the inflationary costs school districts face. “1.75% just does not mean new money for a lot of districts,” she said. “…Utilities and then insurance costs go way up every year, so a lot of this new money — if they do get it — is eaten up by those costs, not to mention we have increased minimum teacher salaries that we have to meet each year.” Any person hired to start teaching in the 2026-27 school year must be paid a salary of at least 50-thousand dollars and any teacher with 12 years of experience must be paid at least 60-thousand dollars.
