The following is a legislative update from Rep. Linda Upmeyer of Clear Lake:
Investing in Education
Barbecues, days at the lake, and parade season. What’s not to love about summers in North Iowa? Fields are turning greener and the corn is growing taller which means the Independence Day is quickly approaching. I’m looking forward to seeing many familiar faces in Clear Lake on the Fourth of July for the best parade in Iowa!
This past legislative session, we put a focus on improving our K-12 schools and addressed issues that haven’t been discussed in the past. We increased funding, provided schools with more flexibility, and gave schools more local decision-making authority.
This week, I want to highlight the strong commitment that we have made to schools by investing in K-12 education throughout the years. Appropriate funding is an important aspect of ensuring that we have world-class schools for Iowa kids and Iowa is receiving national praise on this subject .
Record investment in Iowa schools
Ensuring that Iowa’s K-12 schools have sufficient resources is a top priority when it comes setting the state budget. Funding for our schools is the state’s largest budget item, accounting for about 45% of the entire state’s General Fund budget, demonstrating our commitment to Iowa’s kids. In the upcoming school year, funding for K-12 education will top $3.2 billion, the most in Iowa history.
Since 2011, investment in K-12 has grown by more than $765 million, an increase of about 40%. This has resulted in an additional 2,300 new teachers in Iowa classrooms and a lower student-to-teacher ratio. We also have some of the best paid teachers in the country, ranking 8th highest according to an analysis done by National Public Radio.
In fact, Iowa has been recognized nationally as being a leader in school funding. Only three states have increased funding to K-12 schools in recent years more than Iowa. Additionally, funding increases have outpaced the rate of inflation over the last eight years according to recent reports.
Additional transportation funding
Not only did we provide schools with an increase in general school aid, we also wanted to address one of the major challenges that rural schools face. Rural Iowa has an unequal burden when it comes to bussing students to and from school. Some schools spend nearly $1,000 per student on transportation, while others spend as little as $100 per student. This is a huge disparity between districts.
In order to address this difference, we created a transportation relief fund and filled it with more than $11 million for next school year. This funding will be distributed to districts that face the highest transportation costs. Next school year, the most that any school district will pay for transportation will be about $450 per student.
With less funding being used to transport kids to and from school, more dollars will make their way into classrooms. This will make a huge difference and ensure that the dollars schools received are stretched further.
Iowans understand that great schools mean greater opportunity for our children’s future. We will continue to invest in K-12 education and make schools a top priority to ensure that Iowa kids receive an effective education that prepares them for college, a career, and real life.
Even though we have adjourned for the year, please let me know if I can help in any way. During the interim, I would love to hear your ideas and feedback on this legislative session and what you’d like to see accomplished next year. I can be reached by email at Linda.Upmeyer@legis.iowa.gov or by phone at (515) 281-3521.
6 thoughts on “Rep. Upmeyer reflects on Republican efforts to improve Iowa schools”
More money -more money – cry of the liberal almost all democrap public servants – don’t know what a hard days work or how hard work in the private sector is — most public servants are a big lie.
Exactly Bo – figures lie and liars figure. The republicans are determined to gut public education.
Keep using statistics to your advantage Linda. The #8 ranking she cites in teacher pay includes salary adjustments for cost of living. As the study states, this is not always an accurate way to judge salaries in that many times experienced teachers outnumber the younger teachers and that boosts up the average. In Iowa, that is the case. Iowa’s starting teacher pay average is ranked 24th. That is why the best and the brightest go to other states or other professions. This is a quote from that study “There is obviously wide variation in the costs of living within states, too, that these numbers can’t clearly capture. In some cases, deep pockets of veteran teachers may also conceal low pay for young teachers. If you’re curious to know what states pay their starting teachers, EdBuild has looked at that, too. ” Our rural schools can’t pay as much as Des Moines, Cedar Rapids or Iowa CIty pays so they lose quality also. Her statement that Iowa has increased funding over 40% since 2011. That is also is also misleading because she doesn’t mention that the money isn’t being used for increasing teacher salaries because the average salary in Iowa has decreased since 2011. Upmeyer also omits the fact that there are nearly 8000 more students enrolled in iowa schools in that time period. She can say whatever she wants to make the record look better than it is and she does. Ask her sometime about the real facts. She will ignore your questions or she will give you an answer that doesn’t relate to the question. Keep being an ALEC minion Linda. They will take care of you.
Common sense solutions to common problems. The liberals are crying because the legislature didn’t throw money away.
Well, Bodacious and Anita Micich were purged from the system. That’s a positive. But Anita Marie Micich walked away from Mason City with >$250,000. And now she’s at Iowa State teaching administrators. That’s a big negative.
But, bodacious is finally gone. Now our children will have a chance for a decent, unbiased education.