Benchmarking helps school boards make better decisions by comparing their district with true peer districts—not just nearby schools or statewide averages. Comparing districts with similar enrollment and student needs provides a more meaningful basis for evaluating staffing, spending, and student outcomes. The goal isn’t to copy another district—it’s to ask better questions. Benchmarking identifies...
Iowa’s urban and suburban school districts demonstrate a wide range of per-pupil spending and are evenly split on both sides of the statewide average. The data suggests there is not a strong relationship between higher per-pupil spending and stronger student outcomes, as some of the best-performing districts rank well below the statewide average for per-pupil spending. The findings reinforce the i...
The most practical way to view the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa is that it allows a broader range of ideas to flourish on campus. Reasonable people can disagree, and the center offers students an opportunity to engage more deeply with the nation’s history while participating in thoughtful, open discussion of important issues. That is, after all, a key tenet of higher e...
Graduation rates are a useful, but incomplete, measure: They show whether students are finishing school and provide public accountability, but they don’t fully capture academic readiness or learning outcomes. Iowa results are mixed: From 2024–2025, graduation rates rose slightly statewide (+0.5%) with more districts increasing than decreasing, but over five years, rates declined overall (-1.4%). C...
Turnout in the March special election remained extremely low across the participating districts. Across the 12 contests, just 6,336 votes were cast out of 136,901 registered voters — a turnout of only 4.6 percent. Individual district turnout varied significantly. The highest turnout occurred in Sibley-Ocheyedan CSD, where 34.8 percent of registered voters participated in the PPEL renewal election....
School boards control spending and every budget involves choices. While administrators draft proposals, boards hold the legal responsibility to set priorities. Claims that “we have no choice” should be questioned, because budgeting always involves tradeoffs in programs, staffing, compensation, benefits, and district structure. Spending decisions should be evaluated through a per-pupil and outcomes...
Iowa school districts such as Boone and Cedar Rapids are proposing major budget cuts, yet their per-pupil spending has risen sharply over the past five years and now sits well above the national average, with Iowa averaging over $22,000 per student. This growth was driven largely by school board spending decisions and the temporary influx of federal pandemic relief funds that masked enrollment dec...
Student enrollment declined in 2025: Iowa’s K–12 enrollment in public, charter, and private schools fell by about 1 percent in 2025, driven primarily by a 1.5 percent drop—more than 7,000 students—in public school enrollment. Public school trends drive overall enrollment, not private school growth: While private school enrollment increased modestly in 2025, those gains account for only about one-t...
Iowa’s K–12 enrollment is declining as birth rates fall and fewer young families move into the state, and that trend is expected to continue for at least the next decade. Enrollment drives school funding, which means shrinking student counts—especially in small districts—create financial pressure and push more districts onto the “budget guarantee,” shifting costs onto local property taxpayers. Dis...