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(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa House is amending a Senate bill on K‑12 school funding, bumping up the rate by half a percentage point.
The Senate had set the per‑pupil funding rate at one‑and‑three‑quarter percent, but the House Appropriations Committee is raising that to two‑and‑a‑quarter percent. That’s a quarter‑percent higher than what Governor Kim Reynolds proposed in her State of the State address last month.
The House must now vote on the bill before sending it back to the Senate for approval. House Republicans say the bill is responsible and sustainable, but education advocates argue the increase still wouldn’t prevent staff reductions and program cuts.