House Speaker Pat Grassley says on Monday House Republicans will unveil their counter offer in negotiations over how much the state’s per pupil funding of K-12 students should grow next year. It will be at least a 2% increase, which is what the governor proposed in January. And Grassley says House Republicans will propose addressing some other school funding issues.
“Things like the $14 million that we’ve talked about for paraeducators,” Grassley said. “That’s something that continues to be important.”
Thursday is the legal deadline for legislators to make this school funding decision. Grassley says pushing negotiations past that deadline is likely to benefit schools.
“What we tell our schools is if it takes us a little longer to get to the destination, know that there’s things within the budget conversation that we’re trying to fight for,” Grassley said. “…We want to try to maximize what we’re getting in some of these negotiations and conversations.”
Advocates for public schools say the general level of state funding of K-12 education must grow far more than Senate Republicans or the governor have proposed. They cite increasing operating costs due to inflation, plus starting July 1 all beginning teachers must be paid a $50,000 salary and veteran teachers with 12 years of experience must be paid $60,000 dollars a year.
