Lawmakers, advocates prepare for renewed push on private school vouchers

DES MOINES — Legislation calling for taxpayers to help fund private school scholarships is likely to make a comeback in the next Iowa legislative session, and proponents say they hope the proposal that failed to pass earlier this year now will be expanded.

Senate Republicans passed a bill that would have made up to 10,000 scholarships available to students to attend private schools or charter schools. The scholarships would have been available to families making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line and students with an individualized education program, generally students with disabilities or special needs.

The proposal would have seen about $55 million diverted from public schools to fund those scholarships, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.

Proponents of the policy say it gives parents more choice over their children’s education and would help students who don’t succeed at public schools. Opponents argue it would hurt public schools; that keeping taxpayer dollars in public schools helps the largest number of children.

The measure failed to pass in the Iowa House, where about a dozen Republicans did not support it, many in rural districts concerned about the policy’s effects on schools in their area. Democrats in both chambers opposed the measure.

The bill was one of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ flagship policy proposals during the last session, and she campaigned this year on bringing a similar measure back in the next session.

A spokesperson for Reynolds said she will reveal her legislative priorities in her annual Condition of the State address once the legislative session starts, and she “will never give up on providing children with the best learning environment they deserve.”

The legislative session starts Jan. 9.

Legislative landscape

House Republicans will create a new Education Reform Committee in the upcoming session that will deal with “bills containing significant reforms to our education system,” according to a news release. Republican House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford, who will chair the committee, didn’t say whether it would consider a private school scholarship bill.

“The House Republican caucus plans to consider a broad set of education reforms this session,” he said in a statement. “This new committee will allow these important issues to be put in front of the entire caucus for the in-depth discussions they deserve.”

Both chambers also passed bills during this year’s session dealing with “transparency” in education, which would require schools to publish course materials and lesson plans online. But the legislation stalled amid disagreement over the private school scholarship proposal, often referred to as vouchers.

In the Senate, where the proposal has passed the last two years with less dissent among Republicans, Majority Leader Jack Whitver said it is too early to know exactly what will be in a Senate bill dealing with private school tuition assistance.

“I expect to debate policies similar to the bills Senate Republicans passed in the 2021 and 2022 sessions allowing parents to use scholarships to send their children to the school that best fits their needs,” he said in a statement.

Democrats are expected to oppose those measures if they come up in the next session.

“Iowans don’t care if a new committee in the Iowa Legislature is created to consider the governor’s voucher plan or other bad ideas like jailing teachers and banning books, because it’s just all politics,” House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights said in a statement. “House Democrats stand alongside Iowans and will oppose any bill that shifts money from public schools to private schools. It’s time to put people over politics.”

Advocates push for expansion

Advocates for the policy said their “gold standard” is to see a system where any family can use the state funds that would go to a child’s public school for private schooling or home schooling, rather than a limited number that was proposed in the last session.

While Iowa Republicans may not go that far this year, advocates said they expect to see a proposal that will expand on what Senate Republicans passed earlier this year.

“If I were going to guess, and I haven’t seen a bill … it’d be more than 10,000,” said Chuck Hurley, vice president and chief counsel for the conservative Christian organization The Family Leader. “It’d be pretty expansive. Because I think the governor is really on a mission to try to help more parents.”

Trish Wilger, executive director of the Iowa Advocates for Choice in Education, said the formation of the House Education Reform Committee is a sign that House Republicans will make progress.

“We aren’t certain of the intent for that committee or how education and education reform will work together, but we are optimistic that it means the House is very serious about education issues, including school choice,” she said.

But not everyone is expecting an expansion of the measure. Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Rural Education Advocates of Iowa and the Urban Education Network, both of which opposed the scholarship bill, said she would be surprised to see a proposal larger than what the Senate already passed.

Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association — the union that represents teachers and educators in Iowa — declined a request for an interview because specific legislation has not been proposed. But in an emailed statement, he said the ISEA would continue opposing diverting public school dollars to private schools.

“Iowa’s public schools continue to heroically serve their communities, students and families and public dollars need to go to public education,” he said. “Spending vital taxpayer money on private school vouchers, when our public schools need resources to address the needs of the nearly half a million students attending them, is harmful to Iowans in every community across the state.”

Opponents of the idea say public opinion is on their side. In an exit poll conducted by Public Policy Polling for the liberal advocacy group Progress Iowa, 54 percent of respondents who voted in the November midterm elections said they think public tax dollars should go toward public schools only, while 39 percent said some students should be able to use the dollars for non-public schools.

Counting the votes

With a new class of Republicans joining the Legislature, it remains to be seen whether there will be enough support in the House next session. Reynolds threw her support behind challengers to nine House Republicans who didn’t support the measure in this year’s primary elections. Several of those Republican incumbents lost in the primary to the governor-backed rivals.

Notably, Rep. Dustin Hite, R-New Sharon, who chaired the Education Committee and opposed the measure, lost his bid for re-election to primary challenger Helena Hayes.

“There have been some changes in who’s in the seats in the Republican majority. The Republicans have a larger majority as well,” Wilger said. “And we believe that school choice supporters are among those new faces in the House. So we are optimistic.”

On the other side, Buckton said she’s optimistic opponents can persuade legislators of the harmful effects they say private school tuition assistance would have on public schools in Iowa.

“When you get to actually looking at policies and hearing from constituents about their feelings about it, I think it’s not going to be a done deal at all,” she said. “I think there will be a lot of good quality conversation.”