Proposals to equalize school funding in Iowa failed again this year. But they still advanced farther in the legislature than they had in the past.
For three years, Davenport Superintendent Art Tate has tried to get the school funding formula fixed - now more than 40 years old, it requires Davenport and more than 150 other districts including North Scott to spend 175 dollars less per student than other districts in Iowa.
A bill that would have equalized funding over ten years passed in the Senate, but stalled in the House.
"I've always said that I just wanted them to admit that there is inequality. And the bill actually addressed both transportation inequality as well as per pupil. We were very encouraged all along by it."
The problem was not the bill, but a very tight state budget.
Another bill would have given Davenport and other school districts some short-term relief by giving them more freedom to spend their reserve funds. It never got out of committee.
"No one seems to be willing to admit that there are districts in a situation like ours that have reserves and are perfectly willing and able to spend them and in fact have a plan to spend them."
His district is already spending more than the state formula allows, and faces possible sanctions from the state board of education.
