The 2022 session has been a great success, from passing historic tax relief to protecting the integrity of girls’ sports to adding pro-mother/baby provisions to Iowa Code, but more work remains to be done before session adjourns. One piece of Governor Reynolds’ agenda the Senate adopted was her education reforms. For the past couple years, parents have been more involved in their children’s education. They have sometimes seen inadequate conditions and harmful curriculum. They want a clear and consistent path to engage with their school on the concerns they have. If these concerns are not adequately addressed, then parents deserve to have greater choice in their children’s education.
A Parents’ Bill of Rights is one component of the bill passed by the Senate. In terms of school choice, our bill makes 10,000 scholarships available to students to attend a non-public school, with the balance of the state per-pupil funding not included in the scholarship allocated to operation-sharing functions commonly used in rural schools. Unfortunately, these reforms are languishing in the Iowa House.
