Funding

Iowa's area education agency budgets are made up of a combination of direct state aid, local property taxes and various grants. The mechanism which brings state funds to the agencies is unique, however, because the AEA's have no taxing authority.

Instead, AEA's rely on the local school district to generate dollars for their operations and also serve as a conduit for state funds. AEA funding appears in each local school district's budget, but it merely "flows through" the school budgets. In reality, it is withheld by the state comptroller and paid directly to the AEA.

This unique system sometimes causes confusion and misunderstanding, particularly to educators new to Iowa and AEA funding. The funds which appear in the local district budget are not part of the school's budget; they are earmarked for the AEA. Local districts do not control these funds.

The basic property tax and state aid flow-through is simply a set dollar amount multiplied by the number of students in each local school district. Each of the AEA's three divisions has its own per-pupil rate, which varies slightly among AEA's. The rate is adjusted annually by the allowable growth percentage to reflect such factors as state tax collections and inflation.

The enrollment figure used to determine Special Education funding is called weighted enrollment. Under this complex formula, higher levels of disability equate to a higher per-pupil amount. Special Education receives funding from direct state aid and property taxes.

Media and Educational Services, completely funded by property taxes, use a less complex enrollment figure made up of each school district's October student headcount, plus resident pupils attending approved nonpublic schools.

Federal and state grants, which account for about 40 percent of AEA revenue, support a variety of programs, most of which are in Special Education.

Several AEA's operate extensive special education instructional programs for which they charge tuition. Others coordinate cooperative purchasing programs. In general, these types of programs are self-supporting.