Republican priorities not with public education

How does cutting state dollars available for K-12 public school funding by a likely $341 million a year sound like a good strategy to attract new businesses and people to Iowa as well as keeping the brain drain of young people and families from leaving the state? Cutting available funding for most of the nearly 500,000 public school students to subsidize 10,000 families in private schools is another dagger in the heart of Iowa’s K-12 public schools after years of inadequate allowable growth funding.

Even our governor’s predecessor, Terry Branstad, realized the importance of a high quality and appropriately funded public education when in 2013 he proposed $187 million in funding in addition to that year’s allowable growth funding “that will bring Iowa closer to its goal of providing a world-class education to all children no matter where they live.” Having world class public schools was one of four top priorities set by Branstad that year.

We now see where Kim Reynolds and Statehouse Republican priorities are. And that’s not with providing a world-class public education to all students. Voters, contact your elected state representative and state senator and tell them you are against private school vouchers and the defunding of our K-12 public schools.

Ron Olson

Cedar Rapids