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Two-thirds of Iowa students receiving new private school scholarships already attended private school, state figures show
The Iowa Department of Education published certified K-12 enrollment figures for the 2023-2024 school year, which provide the first look at the impact of the state’s new private school financial assistance program
Jan. 26, 2024 3:14 pm, Updated: Jan. 26, 2024 5:11 pm
DES MOINES — Roughly two-thirds of the nearly 17,000 Iowa students who received taxpayer-funded financial assistance to attend a private K-12 school this year already were attending private school, according to data published Friday by the state.
The Iowa Department of Education on Friday published the certified K-12 enrollment figures for the 2023-2024 school year.
The numbers provide the first look at the impact of the state’s new private school financial assistance program, which allows some K-12 students to receive a taxpayer-funded scholarship equal to the state’s per-pupil public education funding — $7,598 in the program’s first year — to put toward private school tuition and other costs.
According to the newly published 2023-2024 K-12 enrollment data from the state:
- 16,757 students used a Students First Education Savings Account at a private school as of the Oct. 1 certified enrollment date.
- Of those scholarship recipients, 2,135 attended a public school last year and 3,513 were entering kindergarten. Of the remaining 11,109 students, a majority attended private school last year. An Iowa Department of Education spokeswoman was unable to confirm Friday exactly how many scholarship recipients attended an Iowa private school last year, saying there are “other scenarios” included in the overall figures.
- Private school enrollment in Iowa increased 7.4 percent, from 33,692 the previous school year to 36,195 this year.
- Public school enrollment in Iowa declined by 0.57 percent. The state education department in a news release said public school enrollment was on a downward trend prior to passage of the new private school financial assistance program and was projected to continue that trend at least through the 2026-2027 school year.
- 60 percent of Iowa public school districts had 10 or fewer private school scholarship recipients living within the district’s boundaries, including 20 percent that had no scholarship recipients.
- 12 percent of Iowa public school districts had 100 or more private school scholarship recipients living within the district’s boundaries.
With 16,757 scholarships being used, the program will cost the state $127.3 million in the first year. That exceeds initial projections; the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency had estimated the program would cost the state $107 million in the first year.
That LSA projection suggested the program, which gradually expands eligibility, will cost the state $345 million annually by FY 2027.
The new state program was proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds and passed into law in 2023 with only Republican support in the Iowa Legislature.
Reynolds did not issue a statement Friday, and her spokesman did not respond to an email from The Gazette. When she signed the program into law last year, she said the program will fund “students instead of a system.”
“We’re rejecting the idea that the answer to improving education is simply throwing more money into the same system,” Reynolds said last year.
Konfrst: Iowans are paying to ‘flood the books’ of private schools
Statehouse Democrats on Friday said the new enrollment numbers show the scholarships are going mostly to Iowa families who had already decided they could afford private school costs.
“So the people getting the benefit of tax dollars had already decided they were going to private school and already could afford it. And now taxpayers are footing the bill,” said Iowa Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, the leader of the Iowa House Democrats from Windsor Heights. “Taxpayers are literally paying to flood the books of private schools across the state.”
Iowa Sen. Pam Jochum, leader of the Iowa Senate Democrats from Dubuque, called the program “a terrible idea for Iowa.”
“Vouchers shortchange the vast majority of Iowa students, while committing public money to private schools without the accountability and transparency taxpayers deserve,” Jochum said.
Under the program, K-12 students can apply for taxpayer-funded scholarships equal to the state’s per-pupil public education funding, which for the 2023-2024 school year was $7,598. The scholarship must be used to pay for private school tuition first; any remaining funds can be used to pay for certain approved private school expenses, including books, computers and tutoring.
Public school districts will receive roughly $1,200 in state funding for each scholarship recipient that lives in the district, as a means to help offset any loss of state funding from a student leaving the district. That is not new funding; it will be allocated from existing supplemental funding programs.
The private school scholarship program, which Reynolds’ administration calls the Iowa Students First Act, is being implemented in phases. The scholarships were immediately available to all public school students plus all incoming kindergarten students, public or private. Eligibility for existing private school students is being phased in over three years: for private school students whose household income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level in the first year, and at or below 400 percent in the second year. Beginning with the third year, the 2025-2026 school year, all Iowa K-12 students will be eligible for the program.
In August, the state approved more than 18,600 scholarship applications for the first year. Some applications were withdrawn, and some eligible participants did not use their scholarship, the state said Friday.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com
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