It was just last month when Davenport's superintendent Dr. Art Tate stood before the school board saying he would break the law to avoid millions of dollars in budget cuts. The state must have been listening, because Iowa's Department of Education is now proposing three options to fix the funding formula for education.
"I think Dr. Tate's actions and his speech on March 9th did instigate a lot of additional attention," said school board president Ralph Johanson.
The 40-year-old formula authorizes how much each district can spend. Davenport is authorized to spend $175 less per student than other districts like Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley.
"It seems nonsensical by law we would say we can spend this amount of money on this student and we'll only allow this amount of money to be spent on this student," said Johanson.
One fix is allowing Davenport to make up some of the difference by dipping into their reserve fund of about $29 million. Right now that would be against the law to do.
"I think option one is the one that is probably closer to what we might be able to support," said Johanson.
However, the other two options include making more money available to Davenport by taking away from districts that spend more. Davenport leaders say they don't support that.
Even though not all the options are ideal, Johanson says at least the conversation has started, "I think the engagement with Department of Education is encouraging that at least they're trying to come up with ideas on how can we resolve this."
Any changes to the current formula must pass the state legislature.