An education bill continues to be debated in the Iowa Legislature concerning Student First Scholarships.

The bill would allow for parents of children that are attending 34 federally failing schools in Iowa to take public per pupil funds and use it at another institution, like private schools. Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center Schools Superintendent Dennis McClain says a concern he has is the lack of transparency that private schools have and not having to report how those funds are used, unlike what public schools are required to do. He talks about another issue he has with public funds being used in private schools.

“There’s very little equity as far as which students they serve. They get to choose which ones they serve and for how long. So they can get the tuition money and then decide, ‘Either this student has behavior concerns or academic concerns that we can’t meet, so we’re just going to basically expel them from our program. Then they keep the money and then the parents are left with trying to figure out how to serve that student, which usually means going back to the public school again that now doesn’t have the funding to serve that student.”

Proponents of the bill say it will help give parents options of where to send their child for education and it creates a public-private partnership, which has been done in other sectors of the state. The bill was passed by the Iowa Senate early in the legislative session.