As the first funnel week approaches in the Iowa Legislature, lawmakers are scrambling to make sure their bills stay alive.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green is hoping that the school choice proposal from Governor Kim Reynolds is one of those bills. The current proposal is allowing students to utilize public per pupil funding to go to a private institution, along with a maximum of 10,000 scholarships, with 5,000 for students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEPs) and 5,000 for low to moderate income households. The income threshold was outlined at 400-percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $100,000 for a household income to qualify. Green says he’s willing to negotiate that number.

“I have to say personally, if we’re going to be focusing on low and middle income, maybe what we could do is draw that down a little bit, that 400-percent of federal poverty level. Just like with any other conversation, when you’re trying to pick winners and losers based on income, you’re going to have people left out or upset. But at the same time it costs a lot to raise a family, we all know that. It might not be as shocking of a number as people might think when you sit back and think what it takes to raise a family.”    

Currently, private schools are not required to accept students with IEPs and Senator Green shares his thoughts on that with the proposal of half the scholarships being tied to students with IEPs.

“I hate trying to make decisions for parents and what’s best for their kids. I think keeping government out of it as much as possible, that’s the whole idea behind this is allowing choice, and allowing parents to make decisions for themselves and what’s best. But at the end of the day, I’ll definitely support anything that crosses the finish line. I do get the fears on that other side and I’m definitely going to be flexible on whatever it takes to get this to move.”   

Another part of the proposal allows for small school districts of 500 k-12 students or less that would qualify to receive 30-percent of the state per pupil funding, or $2,270, and Green adds he will advocate to increase that number so school districts like Greene County will not be left out.