"The ISEA believes every Iowa student deserves a quality public education regardless of ZIP code and every public education professional deserves a safe working environment and a competitive wage. These are two fundamental components of a strong, robust public education system. Unfortunately, Republican leaders do not believe the same.
"This year, they passed, and signed into law new money for private schools totaling nearly $1 billion in the next four years. But, when it came time to fund our great public schools, they could not even keep up with the rising cost of inflation. Setting Supplemental State Aid below the level that will address the needs of more than 92% of Iowa’s students is wrong.
"It is smoke and mirrors for them to claim our public schools are receiving more funding than ever before. Public school funding has not kept up with the rising cost of inflation for 12 of the last 13 years. So, bringing an extra 50 cents to the grocery store to purchase a carton of eggs will never make up for their soaring cost but you can still claim you are bringing more money than you have ever brought before.
"Inflation coupled with fixed costs mean that no matter the ebb and flow of a student population, our schools need more funding to provide a robust and healthy student environment.
"Legislators cannot have it both ways. Iowans deserve honesty. Iowans deserve investment in our best resource – our children – to make our state a place to grow and thrive."
- ISEA President Mike Beranek
