Why is the Iowa GOP hostile to public schools?

When Gov. Kim Reynolds appeared alongside Betsy DeVos this summer, the former U.S. secretary of education and deep-pocketed voucher supporter had nothing but praise for the governor. In order to create Iowa’s controversial new school choice program, Reynolds had taken on members of her own party. She had “set a new tone,” said DeVos, referring to the governor’s decision to support primary challengers against GOP voucher holdouts.

Since 2022, school choice proponents have successfully deployed that playbook across the country, systematically ousting rural Republicans who refuse to get in line behind the issue the party now considers a “litmus” issue. In Texas this spring, Gov. Greg Abbott successfully knocked out six of eight incumbents, clearing the way for Iowa-style education savings accounts in that state.

But voucher advocates may be too quick to celebrate the success of their new political strategy. For one, the conditions that led so many rural Republicans to oppose school privatization in the first place haven’t gone away. Indeed, the predictions that rural residents would be sending their tax dollars to subsidize vouchers for affluent families in cities is being borne out. Meanwhile, the new political calculus means that rural Republicans can no longer count on having representatives that advocate for the local public school, even as it remains the center of the community and often the largest employer. The result is that what may look like political strength on the part of the “education freedom” movement may turn out to be a liability.

There’s another reason why the single-minded determination of Betsy DeVos and her allies to make hostility to public education a signature GOP issue is so dangerous. By drowning local races in dark money, the voucher lobby is fueling precisely the kind of extremism that voters in both parties loathe. In Wyoming, for example, out-of-state school choice PACs spent unprecedented sums in order to knock out incumbents who’ve opposed vouchers, drowning voters in mailers filled with outrageous claims. As one rural GOP senator lamented, he and his colleagues were spending all of their time addressing “some made up lie that someone from Virginia or Texas made up.”

So what happens now? A recent race in deep red northern Idaho may offer some clues.

In one of the most highly contested primaries in the Idaho Legislature this spring, a far-right incumbent in North Idaho was defeated by a more moderate Republican who ran as a vocal defender of local public schools. In a contest that was billed as being about the future of the GOP in this part of the state, school vouchers and the rising hostility to public education emerged as a potent symbol of the GOP’s increasing extremism.

Amid all of the rancor and red-hot rhetoric, it can be easy to forget that hostility to public education is not a mainstream position. That’s because, until recently, politicians on both sides of the aisle understood that strong public schools are essential for a state like Iowa. They anchor communities, strengthen and contribute to the local economy, and provide a better quality of life for Iowa residents. Today, too many Republicans seem to have convinced themselves that we don’t need public education anymore. It may not be long before their constituents remind them to the contrary.

Jennifer C. Berkshire is the author of “The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual.”