(Fort Dodge)– Area Education Agencies across Iowa are feeling the impact of the latest round of state budget cuts.
Bill Garner, Chief Administrator of the Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency, recently told that agency’s board of directors they’ll be seeing a 127-thousand dollar cut in state aid. Garner says they’ll also lose about two thousand dollars in categorical funding phase one and two teacher quality programs.
Garner says the budget cuts are in addition to 54-thousand dollars the agency lost when the Dows Community School District joined another A-E-A.
Adding to the funding woes is a decrease in enrollment among the districts served by the Prairie Lakes A-E-A. Garner says 2003-2004 enrollment in the public schools in the A-E-A’s service area is down by 569 students. Non-public schools in the Prairie Lakes service area saw their enrollments go down by 146 students from the last school year.
The Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency serves a large number of school districts in northwest and north central Iowa.
