Iowa Parents Are Refusing to Support Zach Lahn, Whose School Denies Kids With Disabilities
DES MOINES – New reporting from Iowa Starting Line highlights why Iowa parents are rejecting carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn for running a private school in Kansas that rejects students with disabilities.
A Cedar Falls public school teacher and mother of a child with disabilities said she isn’t voting for Lahn because of his support for Kim Reynolds’ unaccountable school voucher program. She said that school vouchers have “harmed families” like hers who are “seeking a better education for their kids while redirecting funding away from public schools.”
Lahn has left the door open to even more cuts to public school funding, claiming that Iowa “is spending too much money on education” and pushing plans to expand the school voucher program. Meanwhile, the unaccredited private school he runs in Kansas rejects kids with disabilities and is $4.5 million in debt.
Read more from Iowa Starting Line here, or key points below:
- Butler contacted the local Catholic school, planning to pay to send her daughter to a private school with smaller class sizes and the added benefit of the religious upbringing Butler had.
- “The Catholic school ended up ghosting me,” Butler said. The day of the meeting to discuss Shelby’s plan came, and they simply did not show up. Later, Butler got an explanation: “They didn’t have the resources to put toward her at Catholic school.”
- But Butler says the idea of school choice is a fallacy, and as a paraeducator in the public school system, she’s seen firsthand how it’s harmed families seeking a better education for their kids while redirecting funding away from public schools.
- “My daughter had to go to the public school because the public school has to service everyone,” Butler said. “Everyone wants to have a choice, and Gov. Reynolds says they’re giving the power back to the parent—no, you’re not, not for us.”
- As the race for Iowa governor heats up, Butler is paying attention to what each candidate says about the voucher program and agrees with Rob Sand, the state’s current auditor, who is running for the top seat.
- “He isn’t totally 100% against vouchers; his thing is we need oversight,” Butler said after attending one of Sand’s September town halls in her home of Cedar Falls. “He feels some changes need to be made in terms of accountability, and I agree.”
- When money leaves public school districts for private schools, services at public schools suffer. Public schools face budget shortfalls, and students receive fewer services.
- Lahn is a proponent of the voucher program and … himself founded an unaccredited school in Kansas where coaches and guides offer instruction in place of traditional teachers. The school is $4.5 million in debt.
- As an educator, Butler said she has seen the damage voucher programs do to public schools by diverting funds and forcing districts to dip into their rainy-day funds. She also believes that her daughter would have received insufficient services at a private school, given that private schools aren’t held to the same standards as public schools. It’s with that in mind that she sides with Sand on the need for better oversight in these programs.
- “I’m wanting what’s best for the education of all children, and with these vouchers, my daughter, she didn’t have a choice,” Butler said.
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