Nearly All of Iowa’s Private Schools Are Now Funded by Taxpayer Dollars While GOP Field Promises to Go Further
GOP Gov candidates support unaccountable private school vouchers projected to cost Iowa taxpayers $350 million in the next year alone
DES MOINES – A new report from the Des Moines Register reveals that 99% of Iowa’s private schools are now funded by taxpayer dollars under Kim Reynolds’ unaccountable school voucher scheme that every Republican running for governor supports — driving up costs and ripping away funding from the vast majority of our students, teachers, and parents to foot the bill for Iowa’s wealthiest families.
Reynolds’ unaccountable vouchers have “subsidized private schools at the expense of public education … private school students in Iowa are now using ESAs to pay for their schooling, and most already attended private school before the law passed.”
As the Register reports, school vouchers will cost Iowa taxpayers $350 million in the next year alone, and have caused public schools to lose their funding and cut local programs that kids and families count on, hitting rural school districts the hardest.
The GOP gov candidates support Reynolds’ vouchers and attacks on public schools:
- Randy Feenstra backed Reynolds’ voucher scheme in the state legislature and voted in Congress to further shift tens of billions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools to unaccountable private schools.
- Adam Steen wants to go even further in gutting funding for Iowa’s public schools — which are already chronically underfunded — by $520 million per year, effectively slashing over $1,000 per student. Steen has praised Reynolds’ private school vouchers and opposes oversight for school vouchers, saying “we’ve got to protect that program .. from administrative overreach.”
- Zach Lahn supports unaccountable school vouchers and claimed Iowa is “spending too much money on education,” leaving the door open to further attacks on our public schools.
- Brad Sherman and Eddie Andrews both praised Reynolds’ vouchers that are undermining the future of public education in Iowa.
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