Schools should plan for no budget growth and anticipate cuts to their preschool programs, Gov. Terry Branstad said today.
Schools are caught in the midst of a political battle where House Republicans have insisted that schools not be allowed to grow their budgets in the upcoming fiscal year and that the statewide public preschool program be eliminated and replaced with an income-based program. Those are also the recommendations of the governor.
But Democrats are insisting that schools be allowed to grow budgets by 2 percent to help cover inflationary costs such as transportation increases and contractually obligated raises for teachers and staff.
The result has been gridlock on those issues so far in this year’s legislature.
Republicans are closely following the governor’s budget proposal.
“My advice would be to follow the governor’s recommendations,” Branstad said. “… My recommendations, I would hope at the end of the day will be pretty close to what will eventually happen.”
