Appropriations & Funding Bills
A summary of all appropriations for FY 2023. School finance uses its own language—use this breakdown of key budget terms and concepts to better understand appropriations legislation.
SF 560 - Education Appropriations: The bill provides a total general fund appropriation of $982.9 million for FY 2024. It is an overall Increase of $25.3 million (2.6%) compared to FY 2023. Additionally, the bill provides overall FY 2024 General Fund appropriations to the Department of Education (including K-12 programs and Community Colleges) totaling $419.2 million, an increase of $18.3 million (4.6%). Major changes include:
An increase of $1.0 million (12.3%) for Jobs for America’s Grads (IJAG)
An increase of $0.9 million (150.0%) for the Iowa Reading Research Center
An increase of $25,000 (0.8%) for the Student Achievement/Teacher Quality program
An increase of $7.2 million (3.2%) for Community College General Aid
An increase of $1.9 million (40.4%) for the National Guard Service Scholarship
An increase of $1.3 million (2.6%) for the Tuition Grant Program
A new appropriation of $275,000 for the Last Dollar Scholarship Grant Program
A new appropriation of $6.5 million for the Iowa Workforce Grant and Incentive Program
A new appropriation of $200,000 for the LEAD-K initiative
A reduction of $852,000 to eliminate nonpublic textbook services
A reduction of $230,000 to eliminate the appropriation for the Online State Job Posting System
There are several other line items that have an impact on K-12 schools:
Within the University of Northern Iowa’s budget, Educators for Iowa: $1.5 million appropriation. This money could be used to pay stipends or provide tuition reimbursement for teacher prep students who are student teaching.
Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Fund: $2.3 million appropriation
Therapeutic Classroom Transportation Claims Reimbursement: $500,000
Teach Iowa Scholar: $650,000 appropriation. This money is used to provide student loan repayment to teachers.
Budget bills also include some policy provisions. Included in this year’s education budget:
Making teacher prep programs eligible for the Iowa Workforce Grant and Incentive Program. Students receive $2,000 per semester for up to four semesters.
The Department of Education will create a task force to evaluate dropout prevention and at-risk programs. Specifically:
How schools use state funding for dropout and at-risk programs
The effectiveness of the programs
Whether state funding for the programs should be used for an iJAG specialist instead
How to best utilize state funding for dropout and at-risk programs
In a correction to the ESA bill, any money left in a district’s Talented and Gifted fund at the end of a budget year can be spent on Teacher Salary Supplement (TSS).
The Department of Workforce Development will establish a job posting website for school districts, AEAs, charter schools, nonpublic schools and the Department of Education. School districts must submit their job openings to the Department of Workforce Development. This has previously been managed by the Department of Education.
IASB is registered undecided on the bill. It passed the House by a vote of 59-33 and passed the Senate by a vote of 32-16. The bill was then signed into law by Governor Reynolds on June 1, 2023.
SF 577 – Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund (RIIF) Appropriations: This budget includes money for administrative projects at many state departments, including $600,000 for continued development and implementation of an educational data warehouse that can be used by teachers, administrators, parents, and AEA staff. The Department of Education can use some of the money for an e-transcript system that tracks students as they move through their education at multiple schools.
IASB is registered undecided on the bill. It passed the Senate by a vote of 42-6 and passed the House by a vote of 84-6. The bill was then signed into law by Governor Reynolds on June 1, 2023.
SF 578 – Standing Appropriations: This bill encompasses many areas, but there a few items of interest to school districts and public education:
Still no state funding for Instructional Support
The standard AEA cut was increased another $5 million this year, bringing the total cut to the AEAs to almost $30 million.
IASB is registered against the bill because of the cut to AEAs, making it more difficult for them to provide valuable services to school districts. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 31-16 and passed the House by a vote of 55-38. The bill was then signed by the governor on June 1, 2023.
SF 192 – Supplemental State Aid: The House and Senate have come to an agreement on this year’s supplemental state aid rate: 3%. At this rate, the regular per pupil amount will increase by $222, making the FY 2024 per pupil amount $7,635. This means 72 districts will be on the budget guarantee for a total of $5.5 million.
Additionally, transportation aid will also increase by 3%, an increase of $880,000 for a total of $30.3 million. 204 districts will receive aid.
This bill also provides funding for the property tax replacement payment. It extends this property tax relief provision through FY 2024. It increases state aid by $15.3 million and will total $114.8 million in FY 2024. This is dollar-for-dollar property tax relief and increases the cost of state aid without providing new money to districts. The per pupil property tax relief amount is $201. Meaning of the $7,635, $201 of that is pure property tax relief.
IASB is registered undecided. We know that 3% is not sufficient to cover the rising costs districts face, but we appreciate that it’s higher than the original proposals of 2% or 2.5%. SF 192 passed the Senate by a vote of 34-15. It passed the House 59-40, with four Republicans voting no: Representatives Ingels, Jones, Lohse, and Moore. The bill was signed into law by Governor Reynolds on February 7, 2023.
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