A proposed bill by Governor Kim Reynolds is now being looked at in the Iowa House and Senate.

Iowa Senator for District 12 Amy Sinclair says she’s a big supporter of parental choice, so she would like to work on getting something passed to help students and their families. For two years, Governor Reynolds hasn’t been successful at passing a school voucher or Education Savings Account (ESA) bill, and what she proposed this year is different from last year. Sinclair tells Raccoon Valley Radio what the main differences are.

“So the bill she proposed this year is different from the bill she proposed last year in that it’s only means tested for the first couple of years. After that, it’s open to any student who may want to go. It’s the same in that it’s still only accredited, non-public schools. So when we talk about accountability and all those things, we’re talking about the opportunity for students to choose to go to another school that goes through the same accreditation process, or a similar one as our public schools do. So there is that level of built in knowledge that the education that kids are going to get has met at least the same or similar standards as our public schools do.”

Sinclair adds that another difference between the two bills is that this year’s bill only pertains to the student scholarship portion, and not the parental bill of rights portion. She mentions that Reynolds wants that parental bill of rights to come through as its own bill, tackling each topic individually instead of together.