Over the last 25 years the percentage of children living in poverty has grown from 32 to 51 percent across the United States. Iowa's trends are very similar and the amount keeps climbing. In many cases these numbers are much higher in our rural communities and our rural school districts do not have the resources our larger school districts have to address these challenges. (You need to look no further than our recent site-visit to prove this, as I participated in numerous interviews because I represent numerous people)
We can bicker all day about 1.25% or 2.6% school funding, but at the end of the day everyone knows neither number is a real investment into education. Iowan voters are also not being told the truth about either of these percentage increases. Last year the Iowa Legislature passed education reform in the name of Iowa Teacher Leadership & Compensation (TLC). The premise of the education reform was to increase the roles of the best teachers in each school district, and to compensate them for their time in those roles. Each school district was to receive approximately $310 per student to be used toward TLC. While some politicians are making this out to be a huge investment to Iowa schools, the process is incredibly inequitable. 1) They decided to phase this in over 3 years. The phase in was to represent 1/3 of the student population, not a 1/3 of the school districts. 2) The money set aside for TLC was promised not to have a negative affect on the current education funding schools already received.
So lets look at the facts. I'll work backward and address #2 first.
2) TLC funding was promised to remain separate from all other school funding. With our state budget growing at 4-5%, many ask me why is education only going to grow at 1.25%-2.6%? Logical question. The reason for such low percentage amounts is that doesn't include the full education funding picture. We have seen this in our politician newsletters and in our newspapers where one party is arguing saying education is getting this many dollars, the other party is adding in TLC funds and stating education is getting this many dollars. So actual percentage growth with TLC is higher than 1.25%-2.6%, and ranges more around 4%. I think most school districts would be happy with a 4% increase, but that brings me back to my first point.
1) TLC funds are phased in over a 3-year period. So lets take a peak at who really is receiving this funding. There are 338 school districts in the State of Iowa. If we consider rural school districts to be 600 students or less (Clayton Ridge is 598, for better understanding of size), that would be 143 of the 338 total school district as rural. That makes 42% of Iowa's school districts, small rural school districts. Now, out of that 143, what percentage do you think received TLC funds? Would you be shocked if I told you 1%? Only 5 districts of 600 students or less are currently receiving TLC funds. So even though small rural school districts make up 42% of the total school districts, only 1% of them got TLC funds.
So not only did the small rural school districts that need the most help not receive the funds, they are also being punished with a less total school funding package because TLC funds are being lumped into the overall number for school funding (something we were promised by our politicians they would not do). All 143 small rural school districts have the same issues (transportation costs, higher poverty rates, special needs students, homeless students, etc) that school districts with +600 students face. So why can't we get funded equally to better provide for our children? Iowa students shouldn't have their zip code determine their worth. Please help me in asking the question of why our children are worth-less?
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