SSB 1028/SF 166 – FY18 School Funding
COMMITTEE ACTION
SSB 1028/SF 166 sets the FY18 regular school aid/state supplemental aid/allowable growth and the FY18 categorical allowable growth for schools at 1.11 percent. This bill establishes a total cost per pupil of $6,664, an increase of $73 per pupil. The 1.11 percent allowable growth rate in FY18 will cost the state $3.199 billion, an increase of $108.9 million over FY17.
The FY18 allowable growth rate for each of the State Categorical Supplements (Teacher Leadership & Compensation, Teacher Salary Supplement, Professional Development and Early Intervention) totals $520.53 million, an increase of $59.68 million compared to the FY17 amount. Funding amounts for each initiative include:
- Teacher Salary Supplement at $295.14 million, an increase of $4.78 million.
- Professional Development Supplement at $33.5 million, an increase of $0.54 million.
- Early Intervention Supplement (class size) at $34.5 million, an increase of $ .56 million.
- Teacher Leadership & Compensation at $157.4 million, an increase of $53.99 million. This is the last year of a three-year phase-in to the school finance formula.
The Legislature decides if it will pay for the increment increase in property taxes associated with an increase in the percentage growth for schools. The total funding for this effort is $46.7, an increase of $5.3 million over last year ($83 dollars per student for FY18).
Two major policy changes are included in this bill. First, the bill changes the timeframe under which Legislature will set basic school funding. Current Iowa law requires the Legislature to act within 30 days of the Governor’s proposal in the year preceding the base year of the Governor’s budget. The bill changes this requirement to February 1 of the regular legislative session budget year. This means local schools will no longer get 18-months’ notice to prepare their budgets. They will get only three months to determine their local annual budgets.
Second, current code requires that the state percentage growth be the only subject matter in the school funding bill. SF 166 changes this long-held single-subject priority, which decreases the importance of the single subject and threatens a situation in which one priority can be traded for another priority in legislative deal-making.
[1/30: 9-6 (party line)]