Funding earmarked for teacher salaries would follow students to charter schools under a bill advancing in the Iowa House.
Supporters of the bill say the extra money will help charter schools hire more staff while still offering competitive salaries.
Emily Piper with the Iowa Association of School Boards spoke against the bill. She says if the supplemental money is diverted to charter schools, school districts will have to find other ways to pay teachers the minimum salaries set by law last year.
“It's already been worked into our contract, so if that money follows the student, we end up having to figure out how, where we're going to find the extra resources to pay for that. But more importantly, and they talked about this at the end, just because one student left a classroom doesn't mean we no longer need that money because we still need that teacher.”
Piper estimates the change could cost public schools around $1.5 million in teacher salary benefits.