Talk of the Iowa Legislature approving a reduction in Supplemental State Aid for public schools was recently discussed by the Washington Community School Board.

During a special meeting discussion of the district’s five-year financial plan, Superintendent Willie Stone emphasized the need for the board and the community to talk with their local legislators about SSA, which is typically enacted early in the annual legislative session and determines the growth in per pupil funding from the state. Stone said he’s heard that the percentage to be approved this year may be one to two or even zero percent, despite a $1.24 billion surplus in the last fiscal year budget. He mentions the biggest challenge is that districts are required to give salary raises of 3% or a percentage determined by the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, “So knowing those two numbers are higher than zero or one or two percent and we have 2.4 billion extra, we need to make sure they understand how important it is to at least match the three percent so that districts aren’t going backwards just from giving a raise that the legislation is requiring us to give.”

Last year the legislature approved a 2.4% increase in SSA, which the School Administrators of Iowa organization says they are grateful for, but that schools remain under tremendous financial pressures due to lower levels of funding growth over the past decade or longer. A critical labor shortage and the challenge of recruiting and retaining top talent in the field of education can be directly attributed to this lack of funding, according to SAI.