Funding for public and private schools in Iowa could go through some major changes this year as the Republican Party plans to introduce a School Choice bill.

Education students and political science professors at UNI commented on the possibility.

Hunter Flesch, a junior elementary education major and NISG President, will be paying attention to the proposals.

“I don’t know the specifics about the bill but I think we should focus on providing equal and equitable education to all students, regardless of community obstacles or financial limitations,” he said. “We support public education and we need to fund it as such.”

The Republicans now have control of Iowa’s House, Senate and the governor’s office, virtually guaranteeing a fast track for partisan legislation. A prospective school choice bill, which has been strongly opposed by the now outnumbered Democrats in previous sessions, is on the list of priorities, according to Donna Hoffman, Head of the Political Science Department at UNI.

“The goal of the bill is to give parents a choice of where to spend their tax dollars on educating their children,” said Walter Rogers, Iowa Representative, R-Cedar Falls, and the new chairperson of the education committee in the Iowa house. “There is a good momentum for the bill right now. It has proved to be beneficial in costs and improvements when enacted in other places around the world. The transition period is broad and anywhere from two to 10 years”.

“If school choice is ultimately supported, the schools that people end up attending will have to be supported even more to handle the increases in enrollment,” Flesch said. “There will always be students to educate, whether they are taught in their home community or somewhere else, so we need to continuously support K-12 education.”

As no bill has been introduced, details regarding a proposal are not yet clear. 

Typical School Choice bills allow parents to use public funds to enroll their children in private schools.

According to Hoffman, they offer tax-credit scholarships, vouchers, education savings accounts and individual tax credit deductions for funding private education for students in K-12 programs.

Democrats generally oppose these measures because they often mean less funding for public schools.

Rogers has told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that education savings accounts — which earmark state funds for parents to use for private school tuition — are on the table.

“I’m taking an approach of, let’s look at everything and see what we can afford, see what type of transition period it would take to implement more choice for parents,” Rogers told the Gazette.

“At the state level, the Republicans now have a much freer hand into getting legislature through,” Hoffman said. “A School Choice bill is something they have been talking about [for] decades and we would expect it to move forward.”

“I do not support vouchers or other schemes that simply divert resources away from public schools,” said Sen. Jeff Danielson D- Waterloo. “I support school choice through the current open enrollment policy, or updating it if problems have been identified with it.”

Danielson told the Northern Iowan that he believes in investing more in the public education system.

“I believe this should be the way to encourage parents and students to explore other options beyond their neighborhood public school,” he said. “We must make a base level investment in public education first, since that is where the vast majority of Iowans receive an education.”

“Not all Democrats will oppose it but they are fairly skeptical of it,” Hoffman said. “One of the main reasons is that depending on what system you adopt or how it works it can take tax money from the public school system, which is in charge of educating the public.”

Gaetane Jean-Marie, UNI’s Dean of Education, outlined further concerns some hold with the issue, including public dollars following a student to a private setting

“This could be a charter school that might not be held to the same expectations and accountability standards the law holds for the public schools, or it could be to a parochial school that might involve specific religious beliefs not endorsed by the entire population of taxpayers,” Jean-Marie said. She added that the same concern extends into homeschooling situations.

Kelly Newell, a junior English major contributes her thoughts on the school of choice bill.

“I like the idea of choice that the bill empowers but the whole money aspect is throwing me off here,” Newell said. “I’m also a special education major and I like how people with special needs can choose between schools that can provide better.”