Iowa Republican lawmakers and Governor Reynolds have taken millions of tax dollars from public schools and given them to private schools– and they’re not done. They have big plans to continue defunding our local schools.
Roughly 95 out of 100 Iowa students attend local public schools. Only about five in every 100 Iowa K-12 students attend private schools.
This spring, however, Governor Reynolds and Republican legislators proposed diverting millions more Iowa tax dollars away from public schools in the form of additional private school vouchers. This would have benefited only a small fraction of all Iowa students. The state-funded vouchers could have been used to buy personal computers or even socked away to pay for college.
The scheme failed when some rural House Republican legislators listened to their local constituents and refused to go along with the private school vouchers plan.
It’s time to quit pushing an anti-public school agenda. The Legislature and Governor should focus on making Iowa’s public schools—the schools that serve 95% of Iowa kids—the best they can be.
