The Senate has passed Governor Reynolds’ education reform bill, Senate File 159, and sent it to the House. Please contact your member of the Iowa House in support of expanding opportunities for families by clicking here: Tell your representative you support parental choice in education
Among the provisions of interest in the legislation:
- “Student First” scholarships (Education Savings Accounts) that parents of students who attend a public school classified as “in need of comprehensive support” could receive to transfer their child to a nonpublic school if they chose to do so.
- An increase in the tuition and textbook tax credit. The tax credit is available to both public and nonpublic school families. Most private school families would see an increase from $250 currently to $1,000 per child.
We would like the governor’s proposal expanded to help some of our current students in Catholic schools who have been as affected by the pandemic as anyone else, rather than tying a scholarship to a particular residential area.
Parents have the primary responsibility for educating their children, so we believe parents have a right, in justice, to access some of their tax dollars to help them exercise that duty.
Thank you for your help!
“Consequently, the public power, which has the obligation to protect and defend the rights of citizens, must see to it, in its concern for distributive justice, that public subsidies are paid out in such a way that parents are truly free to choose according to their conscience the schools they want for their children.”
Declaration on Christian Education (Gravissimum Educationis), Second Vatican Council
