education funding bill

by Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch
April 30, 2026

Both chambers of the Iowa Legislature have approved education appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2027, with Democrats decrying what they called straying priorities and a lack of will to fully support Iowa’s students.

House File 2783, as amended in the House to reflect agreement with the Senate, would allocate more than $1 billion to Iowa’s education systems, representing a 1% increase in the budget but keeping funding for the Iowa Board of Regents and Iowa Tuition Grant program flat for the upcoming fiscal year.

Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, thanked his predecessors for investing in public education when he was in high school, as it was the only reason he was able to go to college. He’s paid that investment back several times over, he said, through living, working and raising a family here.

“We didn’t view this as an expense, we viewed it as an economic development to keep people in Iowa,” Zimmer said. “And when I look at the funding that’s in here now, it’s certainly not indicative of looking at Iowans as an investment, it looks at, more as, Iowans as an expense.”