In addition, the state requires that school bond issues be passed by at least a 60 percent majority. School leaders advocate a change to that system. While the state has guaranteed that it will not reduce its basic per capita funding, as a result, the lack of increase coupled with cutbacks in other state support make for painful decisions, especially when inflation and rising salaries are factored in. Last spring, Superintendent Gary Wegenke warned Des Moines residents the school system was finding it increasingly hard to foot the bill for student support services such as tutoring and family counseling while paying for building repair, instruction, and more computers. In the end, the costs of some of the support services were picked up by other agencies and businesses, and others fell by the wayside.
Administrators blame lack of space and money.
The state provides some money now, but not enough, they say. In 1994-95, the most recent year for which such data were available, almost 60 percent of the district's nonminority 6th graders scored at grade level or higher for English and math on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, while only 36 percent of the minority students did that well. Students poor enough to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program scored worse than wealthier students by an even larger margin. Similar differences have shown up on many district tests, and are repeated in Iowa's other urban districts. Des Moines uses federal money to try to raise achievement in schools with many poor children and has begun a program to provide intensive help for primary-grade readers who are falling behind.