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ach student who walks into West High has a price of $7,598 attached to their name. The Iowa state government gives this amount of money, funded by tax dollars, to public schools annually for each pupil they have enrolled. After a 55-45 vote by the Iowa House and a 31-18 vote by the state Senate, Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “Students First Act” school choice bill is set to go into effect for the 2023-24 school year. Under this law, Iowan families can now use this $7,598 to cover tuition or educational materials at a private school of their choice. Families access the money, called per-pupil expenditure, through Educational Savings Accounts. According to a January article by EdWeek, eight states currently have ESA programs. In Iowa, the program will be introduced in three stages over the next three school years. Each stage accommodates a wider range of income levels, with eligibility partially determined by data relating to the 2023 Federal Poverty Guidelines. By the 2025-26 school year, all students from all income levels will be eligible to access the ESA. While the $7,598 per-pupil expenditure is granted to families, the new law would still provide an estimated $1,205 to public schools for each private school student in the public school’s district, whether they previously attended public school or not. The bill raises discussion about whether private schools and public schools are held to the same education standards. ICCSD Su-
perintendent Matt Degner opposes the law and believes public schools are held more accountable than private institutions. “Public school districts have a great level of transparency that private schools do not have,” Degner said. “[Public school] doors are always open. Our curriculums are posted online.” Lynne Devaney, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Davenport, oversees 14 accredited nonpublic Catholic schools located throughout southeastern Iowa. Devaney has worked as a principal and superintendent in both public and private schools and believes they follow the same requirements. “[Private schools] do follow the Code of Iowa for delivering instruction to our students,” Devaney said. “All of our teachers have to be certified, all of our principals, our superintendent … We take the [Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress]. We do all of those accountability pieces the same as the public schools do.” Proponents of the bill argue it allows parents to have more flexibility to choose their child’s school, as money is no longer a roadblock. In the state of Iowa, according to Private School Review, the average private school tuition is cur-
The newly-passed Iowa school choice bill allows families to use the money allocated for each public school student as tuition for private school. rently $5,437 per year. Chemistry teacher Michelle Wikner, who has taught at West for 23 years, believes private schools’ potential for discrimination in the enrollment process means they should not receive public funds. “I think the main thing that makes me angry is that public funds are gonna go to private schools and … they can discriminate,” Wikner said. “I just think that’s flat-out wrong. I think private schools have a place, but it needs to be private money that’s funding them, not public money.” According to Devaney, before the new law, private schools were tuition-based and received no state funding. Devaney explains that private schools cannot provide the same level of special education resources that public schools can. “It would be unethical for us to accept a child who has high needs [when] we know we can’t deliver them,” Devaney said. “It is disappointing every time we say ‘no.’ But if we can’t provide the program that the child needs, we should be saying no. That’s ethical. [Private schools] don’t get money like public schools do to support highneed, special education students.” Degner believes that because public schools are available to all, they should be the recipients of taxpayer dollars. “We pay taxes for a lot of things that we can choose to accept or not accept,” Degner said. “It’s a foundational piece of democracy to have a strong public school system. Just because people want to take advantage of a different option, I don’t think that means they
I TH I N K PR IVATE SCHOOLS HAVE A PLACE , BUT IT N E E DS TO BE PR IVATE MON EY THAT’S FU N DI NG TH E M , NOT PU BLIC MON EY. - M ICH ELLE WI KN ER , CH EM ISTRY TEACH ER
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MARCH 2, 2023