Governor Kim Reynolds announced her plans for education spending in the upcoming fiscal year at her Condition of the State address this week.

Reynolds announced her intention to increase state supplemental aid by 1.5%, or roughly $54 million statewide. Superintendent Greg Ebeling tells KNIA/KRLS News that number would be more than they expected in their budget projections, but not enough to cover their expense increase for the next fiscal year.

“The governor’s recommendation was to give us an additional $100 per pupil, and so that would equate to next year to about $6700 per kid, and that’s what that 1.5% is,” he says. “Long term, when we look at that budget, we know that typically to roll the books from year to the next, it takes us usually over two percent to do that.”

“While 1.5% was still more than we maybe thought she would have recommended, it’s still probably not enough to keep our budget balanced over the long term.”

State supplemental aid money goes to public schools’ general funds, which is used for teacher salaries and programming. Hear more about the latest from Pella Schools on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.