School funding in Iowa has been approved by the House and Senate.

State Supplemental Aid, or allowable growth, was approved at 1% Wednesday. Senator Kevin Kinney (D) said he would have liked to have seen it higher, “It’s one of the things where I wish we would’ve been able to come to the governor’s level of 1.5%, but it was the bill that was passed. There was some good things in the bill that had to do with the equalization of transportation that’s something that I feel is going to be good especially for our rural schools.” The measure passed the House on a vote of 57-40 and local representatives Jarad Klein and Dave Heaton voted in support of it. On the Senate side it passed 29-21 with local senators Kinney and Rich Taylor voting nay.

Senate File 175 that has been introduced proposes a school budget review committee to grant transportation assistance to districts if their average transportation costs per pupil exceed the state average per pupil by 150% and if the district meets certain data reporting requirements.