Branstad signs school funding bill

DES MOINES | Gov. Terry Branstad came full circle Wednesday, signing into law a school-funding bill that scraps a forward-funding process that he championed several decades ago.

State law has prescribed — at Branstad’s past insistence — that lawmakers should begin each biennium by setting K-12 funding levels within the first 30 days of their odd-year session after receiving the governor’s budget recommendation for each of the next two budget years in advance to allow districts to plan ahead.

However, that law has gone ignored in recent years and the GOP-run Legislature this year opted to scrap that law in favor of a requirement that lawmakers set the first year within the 30-day framework but then wait until after the March revenue estimate to decide whether to set the fiscal 2019 amount for state aid yet this session.

On Wednesday, Branstad signed Senate File 166 which revamps the state’s school funding system.

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