School Board will tell legislators what it thinks of 1.25 percent suggested educational funding increase

On Monday night the Decorah School Board authorized Superintendent Mike Haluska to put the finishing touches on their resolution objecting to the Iowa House and Governor Branstad proposal of increasing the Supplemental State Aid to education by 1.25 percent.
 
That resolution will note that:

• At the supplemental state aid rate of 1.25 percent, Iowa will drop to more than $1,600 per student below the national per student funding average.

• The past 10 years of state aid, including multiple across the board cuts up to 10 percent, has not kept up with the cost of living, collective bargaining settlements, utilities, IPERS contributions, etc.

• The Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) increased the 2015 revenue estimate to a 5.7 percent growth rate and set the FY 2016 estimate at 4.9 percent. With this above average revenue growth, it is time to properly fund public schools.

Haluska will also include specific ramifications for Decorah Schools that could include staffing and/or salary cuts.

Haluska has a detailed outline of related comments on his blogsite:


http://michaelhaluska.edublogs.org/