Letter to the Editor: Iowa can afford to spend more on schools

To the Editor:
In a recent letter to the editor from Lowell Engle, he stated that Rep. Patti Ruff’s efforts to secure adequate funding for Iowa schools was a “pet project” for “big spending politicians.” So educating our children for the future and continuing to provide them with a world class education is a pet project?
Rep. Ruff has stated that she hears daily from teachers, administrators, parents and students on how it is absolutely necessary that we fund our schools at a rate that gives them the funding they need to provide our children with the education they deserve. The current compromise figure of a 2.625% increase in K-12 school funding proposed by Democrats negotiating in conference committee is hardly big spending. The 1.25% increase which House Republicans are adamant about doesn’t even cover the increases in local school costs, and certainly does not reverse the effects of the three lowest allowable growth rates in the history of Iowa’s public schools that have occurred in the past five years.
Mr. Engle also stated that Rep. Ruff did not tell us, her constituents, how her original proposal of a 6% increase in allowable growth (first reduced to 4% in a Senate compromise, now reduced to 2.625%) would be paid for, and implied that increased spending would be on the backs of property tax payers in Allamakee County. Actually, Rep. Ruff has regularly provided detailed information in her newsletters about revenues and the state budget that shows how the current school funding crisis has occurred.
It has been widely reported that both the Iowa Senate and Gov. Branstad are recommending balanced budgets that spend $7.341 billion, which is 97% of available revenues. The Senate plan includes the compromise 2.625% increase in state support for Iowa’s local schools, which is about $150 million.  However, the House Republicans (with their 1.25% increase) only seem willing to spend $7.175 billion, about $166 million less than the budget proposed by the Governor and Senate. Simple math and common sense tells us we can afford to spend more on schools to at least fund the compromise 2.625% growth in K-12 supplemental aid. The budget is balanced and the reserves are full.  
Finally, as a wise person once said, “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.”

Katie Dodge Hanson
Lansing