(Des Moines) Iowa House District #18 Representative Tom Moore from Griswold says the claim that Iowa is underfunding public schools deserves closer examination. “We often hear the complaint that we are underfunding public schools,” Moore said, “but the numbers suggest this is a debatable issue.”
According to the most recent Certified Annual Report on Iowa school funding, public schools spent $23,711.08 per K–12 student during the 2023–2024 school year. Moore notes that the total enrollment that year was 483,698.7 students. With an average class size of about 20 students, that equates to nearly $474,000 spent per classroom.
The average teacher salary in Iowa is approximately $63,500. When benefits are included, compensation rises to about $85,000. Based on those figures, roughly $389,000 per classroom is spent on expenses other than teacher salaries and benefits.
Iowa’s K–12 public schools are funded by a combination of local, state, and federal tax dollars, along with other revenue sources. Altogether, taxpayer support for the 2023–2024 school year totaled approximately $11.6 billion.
That represents a substantial public investment in Iowa’s K–12 education system. Whether it is sufficient, Moore argues, remains an open and debatable question.
