A topic that has been widely discussed at the legislative session has been school vouchers.

Governor Kim Reynolds has pushed state-funded scholarships that could be used for students to move to private schools, homeschool or go to another public school. The scholarships would be taking 70 percent or $5,200 of the state allocated funds per student for them to transfer schools and the other 30 percent or $2,000 would go to small school districts. House 20 State Representative Ray Sorensen says over the last couple of years, parents have expressed their concern with their child’s education and their looking to expand parental choice. Sorensen explains that he does not have an opinion on the bill just yet. 

“Until I see a bill, until I know exactly what it’s going to do, and I’m just going to hold off on letting people know where I am on a bill that doesn’t quite exist yet.”

Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center Schools Superintendent Dennis McClain says this bill would be detrimental to public schools.

“Look, they haven’t funded (public schools) adequately for over a decade, and now they’re trying to take more of that money away from us. You know, we’ve never gotten funded for homeschooling kids, and now all of a sudden they’re going to start funding those kids because they want to go somewhere else. That doesn’t make any sense here.”

McClain adds that private schools should have to meet the same guidelines and regulations such as serving all students to receive public funding.