“The ISEA remains resolute in our belief that Iowa students need a minimum of 5% SSA. Public schools across the state are cutting budgets that directly impact our students and the education professionals serving them. This, coupled with the state’s private school voucher program, which diverts hundreds of millions of unaccountable public tax dollars to serve a fraction of Iowa’s school-aged children, is taking its toll.
We acknowledge that HF 319 is the greater of the proposals offered, including improvements to operation sharing that will aid our rural schools. However, 2.25% is not enough to address rising costs and the increased needs of our students.
Class sizes are larger, which means individual attention and instruction are stretched. We have fewer school counselors, nurses, and other support staff to address our student's health and safety needs, fewer extracurricular activities like sports, arts programs, clubs, and other enriching activities, and our aging school infrastructure needs are moved to the bottom of the list.
Setting SSA lower than 5% shortchanges our students, education professionals, and communities across the state that depend on their public schools. We implore the Iowa House to do everything they can so our public schools are best positioned to ensure our more than 480,000 students thrive.”
