Iowa costs of teaching non-English speakers rising

DES MOINES - The cost of teaching non-English-speaking students is skyrocketing in some Iowa schools, and while state funding has increased, local property taxes are paying a bigger share.

State funding for students learning English has grown by more than 40 percent, or nearly $5 million, in the past five years, while the number of those students has jumped by almost 20 percent.

State data shows that an increasing number of schools spent more than they received, prompting them to seek additional funds from local property taxpayers.

Eighty-two districts last year needed extra money, up from 68 districts five years ago. Districts collected $11.8 million in property taxes in fiscal 2011 for English Language Learner programs, compared to $6.1 million five years ago.

“We hope kids are making gains in those programs,” said Jeff Berger, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Education. “I'm sure there are situations where they aren't. That's where the request for additional dollars comes in.”

How schools spend that money has gone relatively unexamined in recent years, resulting in a disparity in how much districts spend and the services they provide.

Iowa provided school districts $1,294 per ELL student in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Districts on average spent $1,701 per student, or nearly $40 million total. That's 31 percent more than five years ago.

Des Moines schools, which serve nearly a quarter of Iowa's English learning students, spent $1,308 per student, or $6.3 million last year. Davenport spent nearly $3,000 per student.

But spending more money hasn't resulted in academic gains in some cases. The percentage of Davenport ELL fourth-graders able to read at grade level fell from 71 percent in 2007 to about 62 percent in 2011. Reading proficiency among Des Moines' ELL fourth-graders increased from 45 percent to 51 percent.

Districts with some of Iowa's largest non-English-speaking population - Marshalltown, Denison and Storm Lake - kept their expenses within state funding limits and didn't ask taxpayers for additional help.

Marshalltown has the third-largest ELL enrollment, with nearly 1,600 students who speak 30 different languages. The district did not top the state in spending increases and hasn't asked to increase property taxes, according to state figures.

“We have high poverty levels in our community,” Marshalltown Superintendent Marvin Wade said. “We aren't comfortable going to the taxpayers, saying, ‘We are going to put the burden on you to provide additional services.'”

Instead, he said, the district finds creative ways to use multiple funding sources. It has strengthened its core curriculum, trained teachers to better meet the needs of the students and increasingly used achievement data to target instruction toward students' greatest needs, Wade said.

Iowa expects schools to bring ELL students up to grade level and make them proficient in English within four years, so it funds them for only that amount of time. Educators say that's an unrealistic goal for many students. Instead, they would like to see state funding doled out based on the needs of the students - an idea that has merit, said Jason Glass, director of the Iowa Department of Education.

“It's a change I would be interested in discussing,” Glass said. “The tough question that comes with it, though, is, ‘If we do this in a cost-neutral way, who are the winners and who are the losers?'”

The disparity in per-pupil spending among districts has led to a clampdown from the state committee that authorizes them to collect additional money through property taxes. For the first time, the School Budget Review Committee is requiring districts to document program expenses so it can better understand why per-pupil spending varies so widely and why costs are going up. From that, it can determine if the state needs to change how it funds the program.