“I think it’s really, really embarrassing.”
Senator Sarah Trone Garriott (D-West Des Moines) normally takes great pride in the Iowa education system. But today she’s calling the lack of funding for students “shameful.”
A bill that gives school districts a 2% increase per pupil has been sent to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk, where she’s expected to sign it.
Trone Garriott says she and other Democrats argued with the state’s Republican majority that funding for Iowa’s public schools isn’t keeping up with inflation, and that half of the state’s districts will be under a “budget guarantee process” if the 2% is passed—which means property taxes will have to go up to help schools maintain their budgets.
Meanwhile, a cap has been lifted on income requirements for families at any level of wealth to use taxpayer dollars to pay for their kids’ private school tuition.
“Anybody can apply. Even the richest, the richest Iowans who are already sending their kids to private school, they basically get this huge tax windfall, and it doesn’t provide any good for doing it,” says Trone Garriott.
✏️: Salina Heller
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