Decorah School Board calls on legislature to pass school funding bill now

Although the State Legislature has already failed to comply with state mandates regarding when they should provide districts with allowable growth rates and funding guidelines, the Decorah Community School will join districts across the state in a resolution to push the legislature to act on school finance. The Board voted unanimously to support the resolution.

The resolution calls for the Legislature to set an allowable growth rate of 4 percent, and notes that recent allowable growth rates have not allowed schools to keep pace with educational needs. Ironically, because of the way state school finance works, the resolution notes that a 4 percent allowable growth, in contrast to a zero allowable growth,  would actually reduce the amount of property tax revenues needed to fund schools.