DES MOINES — Five Iowa school districts, including one here in north-central Iowa, have passed resolutions to push for a larger increase in public school funding in an initiative started by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement called “Public School Strong.”
Iowa CCI Special Projects Director Tim Glaza says without action students will suffer. “Our districts like Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, they’re all facing budget shortfalls of like I think ten million dollars for each of those districts, so they have to cut staff. They’re not able to serve students at the same level that they were able to before,” he says.
They want the Legislature to increase state spending by at least five percent. Lawmakers approved a two percent increase for K-12 schools last year. The group also wants a phase out of education savings accounts. “Gonna see more budget cuts, you know, this upcoming year, and so it’s definitely having an impact because hundreds of millions of dollars of public money that should be going to public schools, but instead it’s being diverted to private schools.”…