Proposed legislationeducationThe agenda

PACE Act

Pay As Costs Escalate

An Act relating to public school funding and school personnel, including state supplemental aid, teacher and para-educator pay and recruitment, and state requirements for school districts, making appropriations, and including effective date and applicability provisions.

Page one

The short version

What's broken, what the bill does, and what it costs, in plain English. If you read one thing, read this.

Iowa schools got a 2 percent raise in state aid this year. Prices rose about 2.6 percent last year. Every raise since school year 2022-23 has been smaller than the rise in prices the year before it. When school funding falls behind, families feel it right away: bigger classes, fewer electives, and good teachers looking across state lines.

The Legislature did raise starting teacher pay to $50,000. That was a move in the right direction. The challenge now is keeping our veteran teachers. In school year 2024-25, Iowa's average teacher salary still trailed the national average by $9,183.

The PACE Act (Pay As Costs Escalate) writes a practical plan into state law.

School aid gets tied to inflation. Each year's raise can be no smaller than the rise in prices the year before. Lawmakers can always give more, but our schools stop falling behind every budget cycle.

Experience gets rewarded. The state sends districts $25 million a year that can only go to raises for teachers with twelve or more years in the classroom.

Rural districts get help recruiting. A teacher who commits five to seven years to a rural district gets up to $4,000 from the state for each year served. The state's teacher shortage loan forgiveness program opens up to rural teachers no matter when they graduated. Right now it only covers the first ten years after graduation.

Paraprofessionals get their own line in the school funding formula, starting at $7 million a year and growing with it. Paras who want a teaching license get tuition help from a permanent state program while they stay on the job.

Red tape gets cut. For every new reporting mandate the state puts on schools by rule, it has to retire an old one.

Homeschool families get free online courses through their home district.

High-needs schools finally get funded. In 2013, the education reform law passed under Governor Branstad set aside ten million dollars a year for high-need schools, starting in school year 2014-15. Lawmakers kept pushing the start date back. This spring they moved it again, to July 2027. This bill pays it.

Here's the cost. Each point of growth in school aid costs $55 million to $58 million a year. If prices keep rising through December the way they have all year, the inflation rule adds $62 million to $98 million in its first year, compared with another 2 percent raise. The parts we can price come to $114 million to $150 million in new state money that year. Online courses for homeschool students add more, depending on sign-ups.

In many of our communities, the school is the lifeblood of the town. Let's fund it that way.

That's the whole bill in brief. The rest of this page is the detail behind it, for anyone who wants to dig in.

See where it goes

Where the PACE Act's new money goes in its first school year

How to read this Money starts on the left and flows right along the streams; the moving dots show which way. A thicker stream carries more. Point at or tap a box or a stream to see the amounts.

The price floor's cost is a range from our model, built on the Legislative Services Agency's school aid estimates and federal price data, and it assumes prices keep rising this fall at about the pace they have all year. The other streams are the bill's fixed yearly amounts. Free online courses for homeschool students are not priced and would add more.

The same numbers, side by side

The price floor
Teachers and staff

First school year

School aid raised to the price floor, compared with another raise like this year'sState of Iowa to School district budgets
$62 million to $98 million
Raises for teachers with twelve or more yearsState of Iowa to Teachers in the classroom
$25 million
Rural teacher commitment awardsState of Iowa to Teachers in the classroom
$5 million
Loan forgiveness for rural teachersState of Iowa to Teachers in the classroom
$2 million
Para-educator pay supplementState of Iowa to Para-educators
$7 million
Grants for para-educators training to teachState of Iowa to Para-educators
$3 million
Help for high-need schoolsState of Iowa to High-need schools
$10 million

The analysis

What it costs, and what we don't know yet

For anyone who wants the costs and the tradeoffs. Every figure is a range where the future is uncertain, and every one links back to where it came from.

The math

What it costs and who pays

The price floor

School aid raised to the price floor, compared with another raise like this year's
$62 million to $98 million

Teachers and staff

Raises for teachers with twelve or more years
$25 million
Rural teacher commitment awards
$5 million
Loan forgiveness for rural teachers
$2 million
Para-educator pay supplement
$7 million
Grants for para-educators training to teach
$3 million
Help for high-need schools
$10 million

First school year, stream by stream. Each bar starts at zero, and they all share one scale. A pale band is a range; the analysis below says how it was built.

The parts of the bill we can price come to $114 million to $150 million in new state money in school year 2027-28, the first year in the bill's text. Under the Pay As You Go Act's scorecard the money starts a year later, in 2028-29, when the voucher savings that pay for it begin, so the first-year cost lands then. The Pay As You Go page prices the inflation rule a different way: against what lawmakers would likely have given anyway in each future our model draws, year by year. So its range for that year is wider than this one and starts lower, because in some futures lawmakers would have kept up with prices on their own. Free online courses for homeschool students cost more on top of that, depending on how many sign up, and no one publishes that count. The state's share comes from its general fund. The bill doesn't raise a tax. The voucher savings in the OPEN Act are set aside for it, through the Pay As You Go Act's scorecard.

Tying school aid to inflation is the big piece. Each percentage point of growth in school aid costs $55 million to $58 million in school year 2027-28. Prices have run hot this year, so the floor for that year would probably land at 3.1 to 3.7 percent. Compared with another 2 percent raise like the last two, that adds $62 million to $98 million. If lawmakers would have given that much anyway, the floor costs nothing extra. If inflation cools, it costs less. Whatever it adds stays in the base, so every later year starts higher.

The state pays nearly all of that raise. In the year the Legislative Services Agency's fiscal note covers, the local property tax share of the state cost per pupil was frozen at $685 and the uniform school levy doesn't change with the growth rate, so each added dollar per pupil came from state aid. We assume the same holds in school year 2027-28.

Part of it isn't new money for schools. A bigger raise shrinks the budget guarantee, which tops up any district whose regular program budget would otherwise grow less than one percent over the year before. In school year 2026-27 the guarantee paid $42.2 million to 199 districts, from the state that year and from property taxes in earlier years. A higher rate means less of it is needed. We didn't model that offset, so the net gain for schools is smaller than the cost figures above.

The rest are fixed amounts each year:

Raises for teachers with twelve or more years: $25 million.
Rural teacher commitment awards: $5 million, paying up to $4,000 per teacher per year. The award sits beside the teacher's yearly contract and doesn't change it.
Loan forgiveness for teachers in rural districts: $2 million.
Para-educator pay in the formula: $7 million the first year, then growing with the formula's categorical rate.
The para-educator to teacher pathway: $3 million.
High-need schools: ten million dollars, the amount already written into the law.

Not counted: the online courses for homeschool students, and the department's staff time to keep the list of reporting mandates. Each homeschool student who takes a course is dual enrolled, which puts the student in the district's enrollment count and so raises its state aid. How much depends on the student's grade and courses, and nobody publishes how many would sign up. That cost is real, and the range above leaves it out.

How the ranges were built. The cost of a point comes from the Legislative Services Agency's final fiscal note on Senate File 2201, the school aid bill passed this year: we take one percent of each line in its estimates for school year 2026-27, counting only the lines that grow with the rate, and carry the total one year forward with enrollment drawn from a small drop to a small rise. The floor comes from the federal Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: the eight months published so far in 2026, with the last four drawn at yearly inflation from two and a half to four and a half percent. Each range covers nine in ten of the model's runs, from a fixed seed, so anyone can re-run our model, published with the bill, and get the same answer. To test our arithmetic, we compared it with the same agency's note on the Senate-passed version, which set a lower rate. The gap between the two notes works out to $57 million to $60 million per point for school year 2026-27. That's a little above what our method gives for the same year, so the true cost may run a few percent over our range. Both notes come from the same agency and the same data, so this only shows our arithmetic matches theirs. It isn't a second, independent estimate.

Open questions

What we don't know yet

Measured against the rise in prices over the calendar year before lawmakers voted, every raise since school year 2022-23 has been smaller, five in a row. Measured against prices during the school year itself, the pattern holds for every school year that has finished since then. This school year isn't over, so I can't say it yet for this one.

The about 2.6 percent for last year averages the eleven months the Bureau of Labor Statistics published. It didn't publish October 2025. December to December, prices rose 2.7 percent. Either way, it's more than 2 percent.

I can't say the high-need schools money was never paid. In January 2017, the Department of Education's own school finance guide said it had not been funded. Since then the start date moved forward almost every session, but in 2020 the Legislature left it alone, so for school year 2020-21 the ten million dollars was on the books as the last claim on the state's teacher quality money. I haven't found out whether any money reached it that year.

A law can't bind a future Legislature. Lawmakers could set the floor aside in any year's school aid bill, the way this year's bill set aside the existing law's own deadline for enacting the rate. What the floor does is make skipping it a vote on the record. If a future Legislature decides our schools can fall behind prices again, voters should get to see exactly who made that call.

That limit also shapes the red tape rule. It covers only the reporting rules the state board and the Department of Education write. A mandate the Legislature passes is outside it, and the rule retired can't be one that state or federal law requires. The department has to name requirements in statute that lawmakers could repeal, but only lawmakers can repeal them. Lawmakers should hold themselves to the same rule: when they add a reporting mandate for schools, they should repeal one, and the department's yearly list tells them where to start.

Teacher shortage loan forgiveness covers shortage areas the state names by geography or subject, but only for teaching done in the first ten years after graduation. The bill opens it up. The state's Teach Iowa scholar grants also set aside $96,533 this year for teachers in small, remote towns, but those grants go only to top students coming out of teacher preparation programs. I didn't find money for loan forgiveness in this year's education budget bill. That's one bill, not proof the program is unfunded.

I can't say what each experienced teacher would get. That depends on how many full-time teachers have twelve or more years, and I don't have a count I trust.

The $9,183 gap compares Iowa's average salary of $65,312 with a national average of $74,495, both for school year 2024-25, from the National Education Association's annual Rankings and Estimates. The NEA is a teachers' union. It builds these figures from a survey of state education departments. I haven't checked them against federal data.

Who gives something up

The tradeoffs

Iowa teacher pay is catching up. The average rose 4.7 percent in school year 2024-25, over the year before, faster than the 3.5 percent national rise, and Iowa moved from 32nd to 30th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia, counting the highest-paying as first. That's mostly the teacher pay law passed in 2024. It raised starting pay to at least $47,500 in school year 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and pay for teachers with at least twelve years to at least $60,000, then $62,000.

That's real progress, and the state should keep it going instead of calling the job done. That law set minimums. This bill puts new money behind teachers with twelve or more years, and its inflation floor keeps the per-pupil budget growing at least as fast as prices did the year before, so the raises districts have given don't get squeezed out by a budget that falls behind.

The state did send money to hourly school staff this year. Senate File 2201 paid districts $7 million, once, for all their hourly support staff. This bill's para-educator supplement starts at the same amount but goes only to para-educators, so bus drivers and cooks who shared this year's money get nothing from it. Bus drivers and cooks keep our schools running too. The state should pay for raises for all hourly school staff through the school aid formula, every year, not with a check that comes once. This bill starts with paras because they're in the classroom helping the teacher with students, and its inflation floor means the per-pupil budget that pays everyone else grows at least as fast as prices did the year before.

Per-pupil growth isn't the whole budget. The fiscal note puts total state aid from the general fund up $98.9 million for school year 2026-27, more than the per-pupil raise alone, partly because the state picked up the budget guarantee that year. And budget enrollment fell 1.53 percent, so fewer students are sharing the money. Still, the per-pupil amount the formula sets grew only 2 percent, less than prices, and that's the number a district's regular budget starts from. The state should set it at least at inflation every year. This bill makes that the floor.

The Consumer Price Index measures what households pay, not what schools pay. Most of a school's budget is people. In a year when wages rise faster than prices, a floor tied to prices could still leave schools behind. In a year when gas and groceries spike, it could require more than school costs rose. I chose this measure because it comes out every January, before lawmakers vote, and anyone can look it up. It's a floor, not a ceiling. In a year when school wages outrun prices, lawmakers can and should give more.

The floor can cost more than lawmakers planned in a bad year. It follows last year's prices, not this year's revenue, so a year of high inflation followed by a slow economy would force a big raise when the state has the least to spend. The answer is for the state to plan for that year, not to make classrooms absorb it: set money aside in good years and budget for schools first. Lawmakers can still set the floor aside in a real emergency, but they'd have to do it on the record.

The draft text

The draft bill language

For legislators, reporters and anyone who wants the legal wording. This is our draft, written the way Iowa bills are written, so you can see exactly what we mean. If I'm elected, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office, the Legislative Services Agency, writes the version that gets filed, and the wording will change. Page one and the costs above are the commitment.

Read the draft bill language

Proposed legislation

A BILL FOR

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

Section 1. NEW SECTION. State percent of growth —— inflation floor. This section joins chapter 257.

1. For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Budget year” means a budget year beginning on or after July 1, 2027.
b. “Consumer price index” means the consumer price index for all urban consumers, United States city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted, published by the bureau of labor statistics of the United States department of labor.
c. “Inflation rate” for a budget year means the percent change, rounded to the nearest one-tenth of one percent, from the annual average of the consumer price index for the second calendar year preceding the calendar year in which the budget year begins to the annual average of the consumer price index for the calendar year immediately preceding the calendar year in which the budget year begins.
2. Notwithstanding section 257.8, subsections 1 and 2, the state percent of growth and the categorical state percent of growth for each budget year shall each be not less than the inflation rate for that budget year or zero, whichever is greater.
3. If a statute establishing the state percent of growth or the categorical state percent of growth for a budget year has not been enacted by April 1 of the calendar year in which the budget year begins, the state percent of growth or the categorical state percent of growth for that budget year, as applicable, is the inflation rate for that budget year or zero, whichever is greater.
4. If the bureau of labor statistics does not publish a value of the consumer price index for one or more months of a calendar year, the annual average for that calendar year is the average of the monthly values it published for that calendar year.
5. By February 1 of each calendar year, the department of management shall calculate the inflation rate for the budget year that begins July 1 of that calendar year and publish the calculation, with the index values used, on its internet site.
6. If the cost of this section for a budget year is reduced under the pay-as-you-go scorecard, the minimum under subsections 2 and 3 for that budget year is lowered so that the cost does not exceed the savings counted against it.

Sec. 2. NEW SECTION. Experienced teacher retention supplement. This section joins chapter 284.

For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Experienced teacher” means a teacher, as defined in section 284.2, who is employed full-time by a school district and who has at least twelve years of teaching experience.
For each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2027, there is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department of education $25 million for the experienced teacher retention supplement.
The department shall distribute the moneys appropriated under this section to school districts in proportion to the number of full-time experienced teachers each school district employs, as reported to the department for the school year in which the fiscal year begins, and shall pay the amounts at the same time and in the same manner as foundation aid is paid under section 257.16.
A school district shall use moneys received under this section only to increase the salaries of its experienced teachers. The moneys shall supplement and not supplant the salary an experienced teacher would otherwise receive.
Moneys received under this section are miscellaneous income as defined in section 257.2 and shall not be included in any computation of district cost under chapter 257 for any budget year.
The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to implement and administer this section.

Sec. 3. NEW SECTION. Rural teacher commitment program. This section joins chapter 256.

For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Rural school district” means a school district that is located in a city in Iowa with a population of less than twenty-six thousand that is located more than twenty miles from a city with a population of greater than fifty thousand.
b. “Teacher” means the same as defined in section 284.2.
A rural teacher commitment program is established, to be administered by the department. A teacher and the board of directors of a rural school district may enter into a commitment agreement under which the teacher agrees to teach in the rural school district for not less than five and not more than seven consecutive school years.
For each school year a teacher completes under a commitment agreement, the department shall pay the teacher a retention award of up to $4,000. A teacher who leaves the rural school district before the end of the agreement shall not receive awards for later school years, and shall not be required to repay awards already received.
A commitment agreement does not change the teacher’s contract under section 279.13 or the procedures for its termination.
The department shall enter into commitment agreements in the order applications are received, for as long as the moneys available for the program in future fiscal years, as estimated by the department, are sufficient to pay the awards those agreements promise.
A rural teacher commitment fund is created in the state treasury under the control of the department. For each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2027, there is appropriated from the general fund of the state for deposit in the fund $5 million. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys in the fund that remain unencumbered or unobligated at the close of each fiscal year shall not revert but shall remain available for expenditure.
Notwithstanding section 256.220, subsection 2, the director shall designate each rural school district as a geographic area experiencing teacher shortages for purposes of that section. Notwithstanding section 256.220, subsection 4, the requirement that practice be completed within ten years following graduation does not apply to a teacher employed by a rural school district.
For each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2027, there is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department $2 million for teacher shortage loan forgiveness under section 256.220 for teachers employed by rural school districts.
The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to implement and administer this section.

Sec. 4. NEW SECTION. Para-educator salary supplement. This section joins chapter 257.

For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Para-educator” means an individual employed by a school district, other than a licensed teacher, whose primary duty is to assist a licensed teacher in providing instruction or services to students, whether or not the individual holds a para-educator certificate issued under section 256.157.
For the budget year beginning July 1, 2027, the para-educator salary supplement state cost per pupil is the amount, rounded down to the nearest whole cent, that when multiplied by the statewide total budget enrollment for that budget year equals $7 million. For each later budget year, the para-educator salary supplement state cost per pupil is the amount for the previous budget year increased by the categorical state percent of growth for the budget year.
Each school district’s para-educator salary supplement for a budget year is the para-educator salary supplement state cost per pupil multiplied by the school district’s budget enrollment. The department of management shall pay the supplement as state aid at the same time and in the same manner as foundation aid is paid under section 257.16.
A school district shall use its para-educator salary supplement only to increase the compensation of its para-educators. The supplement shall supplement and not supplant the compensation a para-educator would otherwise receive. Each school district shall report annually to the department of education the number of para-educators it employs and how it used the supplement.
There is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department of management for each budget year an amount necessary to pay the supplements under this section.

Sec. 5. NEW SECTION. Para-educator to teacher pathway. This section joins chapter 256.

For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Para-educator” means an individual employed by a school district, other than a licensed teacher, whose primary duty is to assist a licensed teacher in providing instruction or services to students.
A para-educator to teacher pathway program is established, to be administered by the department. A para-educator who has been employed by a school district for at least one school year, who continues to be employed by a school district at least half-time, and who is enrolled in a practitioner preparation program approved by the state board is eligible for a pathway grant.
A pathway grant shall pay the recipient’s tuition and required fees, up to $4,000 per year, for not more than four years.
A recipient shall agree to teach in a school district in this state for at least as many school years as the recipient received pathway grants. A recipient who does not do so shall repay a share of the grants received equal to the share of that teaching commitment the recipient did not complete, under a repayment plan the department establishes by rule.
The department shall work with practitioner preparation programs approved by the state board so that at least one route to an initial teaching license can be completed by a para-educator while employed.
A para-educator to teacher pathway fund is created in the state treasury under the control of the department. For each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2027, there is appropriated from the general fund of the state for deposit in the fund $3 million. Repayments under subsection 4 shall be deposited in the fund. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys in the fund that remain unencumbered or unobligated at the close of each fiscal year shall not revert but shall remain available for expenditure.
The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to implement and administer this section.

Sec. 6. NEW SECTION. School district reporting requirements —— one added, one retired. This section joins chapter 256.

For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Reporting requirement” means a requirement in a rule of the state board or the department that a school district, or an employee of a school district, submit data, a report, a plan, or a certification to the department.
By January 1, 2028, and by January 1 of each year after that, the department shall publish on its internet site a list of every reporting requirement then in effect, with the legal authority for each and the department’s estimate of the staff time needed to comply.
The state board and the department shall not adopt a rule that creates a new reporting requirement unless the same rule, or another rule adopted at the same time, eliminates at least one existing reporting requirement that is not required by federal law or by a statute of this state.
By January 15 of each year, the department shall report to the general assembly every reporting requirement added and every reporting requirement eliminated during the previous calendar year, and shall recommend reporting requirements in statute that could be repealed.

Sec. 7. NEW SECTION. Online coursework for students receiving competent private instruction. This section joins chapter 299A.

A school district shall make online courses available, at no charge to the child’s parent, guardian, or legal custodian, to each child who resides in the school district and receives competent private instruction under this chapter. The courses offered shall include at least every online course the school district offers its own students. A school district that offers no online courses to its own students shall make online courses available under this section through a provider that meets the requirements of section 256.43. A school district may provide any course under this section itself or through such a provider.
A child enrolled in an online course under this section shall be registered for dual enrollment purposes and counted as provided in section 299A.8.
An online course provided under this section shall meet the requirements of section 256.41.

Sec. 8. NEW SECTION. Supplemental assistance for high-need schools —— appropriation. This section joins chapter 284.

For each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2027, there is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department of education ten million dollars for purposes of implementing the supplemental assistance for high-need schools provisions of section 284.11. Moneys appropriated under this section are in lieu of, and not in addition to, any allocation for the same fiscal year under section 284.13, subsection 1, paragraph “g”.

Sec. 9. PAY-AS-YOU-GO SCORECARD. This Act is subject to the pay-as-you-go scorecard.

Sec. 10. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act, being deemed of immediate importance, takes effect upon enactment.

Sec. 11. APPLICABILITY. This Act applies to school budget years and fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2027.

EXPLANATION

The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.

This bill relates to public school funding and school personnel.

The bill ties school aid to inflation. Code section 257.8 (state percent of growth) leaves the yearly growth rate for school aid to a new statute each year. Starting with the school budget year that begins July 1, 2027, the bill sets a floor: the state percent of growth and the categorical state percent of growth may not be less than the rise in the consumer price index over the most recent full calendar year before the legislative session that sets them. The general assembly may set a higher rate. If no rate is enacted by the first of April, the floor becomes the rate. The department of management publishes the calculation each year.

The bill creates an experienced teacher retention supplement of $25 million a year, paid to school districts by their number of full-time teachers with at least twelve years of experience, to be used only to raise those teachers’ salaries.

The bill creates a rural teacher commitment program. A teacher who agrees to teach in a rural school district for five to seven years receives a state award of up to $4,000 for each year completed. The bill defines a rural school district the way the state’s current education budget does for rural Teach Iowa scholar grants. Rural school districts become shortage areas for the teacher shortage loan forgiveness program in Code section 256.220, their teachers may use it no matter how long ago they graduated, and the bill appropriates $2 million a year for those teachers.

The bill adds a para-educator salary supplement to the school aid formula, starting at $7 million statewide and growing each year with the categorical state percent of growth. It creates a para-educator to teacher pathway program that pays tuition for para-educators working toward a teaching license, up to $4,000 a year for up to four years, in exchange for teaching in Iowa afterward.

For every new reporting requirement the state board or department of education adds for school districts by rule, it must eliminate one that state and federal law do not require. The department publishes a list of every district reporting requirement each year.

Each school district must offer its online courses, at no charge, to children in the district who receive competent private instruction. Those children are dual enrolled and counted as Code section 299A.8 (dual enrollment) provides.

The bill appropriates ten million dollars a year for supplemental assistance for high-need schools under Code section 284.11 (state supplemental assistance for high-need schools). That program was created in House File 215 of the 85th General Assembly, but the start of its funding has been postponed repeatedly, most recently by House File 2783 of the 91st General Assembly.

The bill is subject to the pay-as-you-go scorecard, which a separate bill would create. In any fiscal year, the bill’s cost to the general fund is limited to the savings the scorecard counts against it. If the scorecard reduces the cost of the inflation floor for a budget year, the floor is lowered for that year so its cost fits the savings counted against it.

The bill takes effect upon enactment and applies to school budget years and fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2027.

Sources

Where every number comes from

For anyone checking our work. Each figure with the site it came from and the day we checked it, and each law the bill cites.

Show every source

Figures

2 percentIowa schools got a 2 percent raise in state aid this year.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
about 2.6 percentPrices rose about 2.6 percent last year.data.bls.govchecked 2026-09-27
2.7 percentDecember to December, prices rose 2.7 percent.data.bls.govchecked 2026-09-27
2022-23Every raise since school year 2022-23 has been smaller than the rise in prices the year before it.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$50,000The Legislature did raise starting teacher pay to $50,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$47,500It raised starting pay to at least $47,500 in school year 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and pay for teachers with at least twelve years to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$60,000It raised starting pay to at least $47,500 in school year 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and pay for teachers with at least twelve years to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$62,000It raised starting pay to at least $47,500 in school year 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and pay for teachers with at least twelve years to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$65,312The $9,183 gap compares Iowa's average salary of $65,312 with a national average of $74,495, both for school year 2024-25, from the National Education Association's annual Rankings and Estimates.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
$74,495The $9,183 gap compares Iowa's average salary of $65,312 with a national average of $74,495, both for school year 2024-25, from the National Education Association's annual Rankings and Estimates.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
$9,183In school year 2024-25, Iowa's average teacher salary still trailed the national average by $9,183.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
4.7 percentThe average rose 4.7 percent in school year 2024-25, over the year before, faster than the 3.5 percent national rise, and Iowa moved from 32nd to 30th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia, counting the highest-paying as first.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
3.5 percentThe average rose 4.7 percent in school year 2024-25, over the year before, faster than the 3.5 percent national rise, and Iowa moved from 32nd to 30th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia, counting the highest-paying as first.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
32ndThe average rose 4.7 percent in school year 2024-25, over the year before, faster than the 3.5 percent national rise, and Iowa moved from 32nd to 30th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia, counting the highest-paying as first.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
30thThe average rose 4.7 percent in school year 2024-25, over the year before, faster than the 3.5 percent national rise, and Iowa moved from 32nd to 30th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia, counting the highest-paying as first.nea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
ten million dollarsIn 2013, the education reform law passed under Governor Branstad set aside ten million dollars a year for high-need schools, starting in school year 2014-15.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$10 millionThe yearly amount for high-need schools, as shown in the picture of where the money goes.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$685In the year the Legislative Services Agency's fiscal note covers, the local property tax share of the state cost per pupil was frozen at $685 and the uniform school levy doesn't change with the growth rate, so each added dollar per pupil came from state aid.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$42.2 millionIn school year 2026-27 the guarantee paid $42.2 million to 199 districts, from the state that year and from property taxes in earlier years.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
199In school year 2026-27 the guarantee paid $42.2 million to 199 districts, from the state that year and from property taxes in earlier years.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$96,533The state's Teach Iowa scholar grants also set aside $96,533 this year for teachers in small, remote towns, but those grants go only to top students coming out of teacher preparation programs.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$7 millionSenate File 2201 paid districts $7 million, once, for all their hourly support staff.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$98.9 millionThe fiscal note puts total state aid from the general fund up $98.9 million for school year 2026-27, more than the per-pupil raise alone, partly because the state picked up the budget guarantee that year.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
1.53 percentAnd budget enrollment fell 1.53 percent, so fewer students are sharing the money.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27

Laws cited

SF 2201The 2026 school aid act (enrolled). Set the state percent of growth and the categorical state percent of growth at 2 percent for the school budget year beginning July 1, 2026 (Sec. 1, pp. 1-2), and paid a one-year $7 million supplement for education support personnel (Sec. 9, pp. 5-6). legis.iowa.gov
HF 215The 2013 education reform act (enrolled). Created state supplemental assistance for high-need schools (Sec. 66, pp. 35-37) and allocated ten million dollars a year to it from the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014 (Sec. 67, p. 39). Also created the Teach Iowa scholar program (Sec. 46, p. 22). legis.iowa.gov
HF 2783The 2026 education appropriations act (enrolled). Moved the start of the high-need schools allocation from July 1, 2026 to July 1, 2027 (p. 20), and set aside part of the Teach Iowa scholar money for teachers in small, remote towns (p. 11). legis.iowa.gov
chapter 257Financing school programs (the school aid formula). Sections 1 and 4 of the bill join it.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 284Teacher performance, compensation, and career development. Sections 2 and 8 of the bill join it.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 256Department of Education, including the teacher loan and grant programs. Sections 3, 5 and 6 of the bill join it.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 299APrivate instruction, including competent private instruction and dual enrollment. Section 7 of the bill joins it.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 17AIowa administrative procedure act; agencies adopt rules under it.legis.iowa.gov
257.8State percent of growth and categorical state percent of growth. Lists the rates already set and leaves each later year's rate to a statute to be enacted within thirty days of the governor's budget. legis.iowa.gov
257.2Definitions for the school aid formula, including miscellaneous income.legis.iowa.gov
257.16Appropriations and payment of state foundation aid to school districts.legis.iowa.gov
284.2Definitions for chapter 284, including teacher.legis.iowa.gov
284.11State supplemental assistance for high-need schools: the department lists high-need schools and distributes the money for extended learning time, instructional support staff, professional development, or teacher salary supplements in those schools. legis.iowa.gov
284.13State program allocation for the student achievement and teacher quality program. Subsection 1, paragraph g, allocates ten million dollars a year for high-need schools, last in priority order. legis.iowa.gov
256.220Teacher shortage loan forgiveness program. The director designates geographic or subject shortage areas (subsection 2). Forgiveness runs up to five years, and the teaching must be completed within ten years after graduation (subsection 4). legis.iowa.gov
279.13Teacher employment contracts and how they continue or end.legis.iowa.gov
8.33Unspent appropriations revert to the fund they came from at the end of the fiscal year unless a law says otherwise.legis.iowa.gov
256.157Voluntary para-educator certificates issued by the board of educational examiners.legis.iowa.gov
256.43Online learning program model, including criteria for choosing private online providers.legis.iowa.gov
256.41Online learning requirements for school districts, including instruction supervised by a licensed teacher.legis.iowa.gov
299A.8Dual enrollment. A child in competent private instruction may register in a public school, take part in its academic activities, and be counted in its basic enrollment for school aid, so each one who signs up raises the district's state aid. legis.iowa.gov