A hot topic bill in the Iowa Legislature has been front and center during the early stages of the 90th Iowa General Assembly. 

Governor Kim Reynolds proposed a school choice bill that would give students the full per pupil state funding to use for a private school, which would become available to all students within three years. Her bill would also give $1,200 to the public school that the student came from. The House also voted to remove the rules that this bill would be subjected to the House Appropriations and House Ways and Means Committees, which considers bills that have state funding and taxation, respectively. House District 47 Representative Carter Nordman describes the reasons why this bill didn’t go through those two committees.

“Iowans, I don’t think, care too much about the process, they care about things getting done in the legislature. But I will say this entire Education Savings Account bill process has been very bottom up. Our entire caucus has had every conversation about every step of this bill. I sit on the appropriations committee, I do not feel slighted in any way that this bill is not going to come to our committee for our vetting, why? Again, because the entire caucus has vetted this process through every step.”    

Nordman doesn’t have concerns with the argument about separation of church and state because he says it is already happening in the state with education. He points out the Iowa Tuition Grant is used for students seeking to attend a private, including religious, colleges and there’s also a grant for preschool children, which some preschools are operated by churches.

Greene County School District Superintendent Brett Abbotts is against the legislation for a few different reasons, including public funds should stay with public schools and this other main reason.

“There’s some disparity between private schools and public schools in the fact that they (private schools) can effectively hand select the students that they would want. So if we are talking about students with specialized services or any of that nature, they are not required to educate those types of students.”  

This is Governor Reynolds third attempt to have a school choice bill make it through the Iowa House and Senate to become law.