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“This inequity has gone on long enough,” QC lawmaker working to pass amendment for Iowa school funding bill

A Quad City lawmaker said she is pushing for a last-minute amendment that could help the Davenport School district dip into its reserve funds to spend more on i...
davenport schools

A Quad City lawmaker said she is pushing for a last-minute amendment that could help the Davenport School district dip into its reserve funds to spend more on its students education and avoid millions of dollars in budget cuts.

For more coverage on Davenport School District’s budget cuts, click here.

Democratic State Representative Cindy Winckler said while the original House Study Bill 240 has failed, she is still pushing to add an amendment to the Senate “standing’s appropriations bill” that would allow the district to use its cash reserves to spend up to $175 dollars per student.

“Currently school districts have already collected more than $691 million in their savings accounts, and this bill would give them the authority to spend approximately $73 million of that,” Winckler said. “For Davenport schools it would mean giving them the authority on spending $3.2 million for the next school year.”

The senate appropriations bill is already slated to pass, Winkler said the new amendment is still eight votes short of passing in the Iowa House.

“With the perceived increase in property taxes, our legislators are always careful. This is a situation where there is $691 million sitting in accounts in our school districts that they don’t have the authority to spend. This would give them that opportunity,” Winkler said. “I think it is time to fully fund this inequity and I hope that other legislators see this as a solution as well.”

“I think that the inequity has gone on long enough,” said Winckler.

Winckler said the bill is set to be debated on Wednesday and probably has about a 40-percent chance of passing.

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