After a long and sometimes bitter debate, the 29 Republicans in the Iowa Senate ratified a plan to increase general state aid by 73 dollars per student. Republicans like Senator Mark Chelgren of Ottumwa say it’s as much as the state can afford to extend for next year’s school budgets.

 

Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, called the roughly one percent increase “pathetic.”

 

The debate about school funding now shifts to the Republican-led Iowa House. A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 11 o’clock Monday morning in the state capitol.