Political ads and public schools

You can’t miss the non-stop political ads for Iowa’s House and Senate races. Many of the Republicans are crowing about raising teacher pay and commenting that Iowa Democrats voted against those raises… failing to mention — that for purely political motives — this provision was attached to the Area Education Agency bill that is unpopular with most Iowans.

For years Iowa Democrats in the legislature have worked to increase pay for Iowa teachers and support staff. But they couldn’t support the AEA bill that was rushed, against the will of the people, detrimental to rural schools, and another step toward education privatization.

The Iowa GOP Chair commented that the vote demonstrated that Senate Democrats prioritize education unions over teachers, ignoring the fact that Senate Republicans never took action on a standalone bill to increase teacher pay, legislation the Iowa House passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion — 92 “yes” votes and one “no.”

Iowa spent $129.9 million on the voucher program in the 2023-2024 school year when the income limit for opening accounts was at 300% of the federal poverty level — roughly $23 million more than the state expected in its first year. An audit released earlier in July by state Auditor Rob Sand found that the state will pay more to the company managing the ESA program than initially predicted because the contract with Odyssey, a New York-based company, was amended to include a transaction fee of 25 cents per $100 of qualified educational expenses — a change Sand said could cost the state “more than double by fiscal year 2027.”

Over 30,000 applications were approved for the second year of Iowa’s taxpayer-funded private school tuition vouchers, according to Gov. Reynolds. She did not provide a specific number of approved applications; however, just 30,000 applications would total $234,780,000 in taxpayer dollars for private school tuition in year two of the program. The Iowa Legislature allocated nearly $180,000,000 to vouchers — an unlimited line item in the state budget — for the 2024-25 school year, and this projection is more than $50 million higher than that amount.

In the program’s second year, the restriction on who qualifies for a voucher was raised to 400% of the federal poverty rate, and this limit will be phased out entirely in the 2025-26 school year.

Back to the Area Education Agencies.

AEA provides special education support and other services to Iowa’s K-12 schools. According to information submitted to Democratic lawmakers by the AEAs on Aug. 15, there has been a total reduction of 429 staff at Iowa’s nine AEAs compared to the previous school year.

The AEA funding model was created so funding would be distributed equitably to better help students with special education needs, regardless of where they lived. Critics have said the 2024 law will mean that school districts — especially those in rural areas — will have less access to services currently provided by AEAs. The previous funding model provided smaller school districts access to services that now will come at a higher cost through an outside provider or individual contract.

Reynolds said at a news conference in August “the law has not changed school districts’ ability to work with AEAs as they have in previous years. If they want to continue to use the AEAs in the same manner that they did before, then they can continue to do that. Nothing has changed.”

Staff reductions reported by AEAs show that Reynolds saying “nothing has changed” is not true because the data shows us otherwise — 429 fewer staff as a result of this legislation. Big changes in the state’s nine Area Education Agencies are punishing small school districts. Many relied heavily on AEAs to help but now the Iowa AEAs are moving to a “Pay for Service” model. Each of Iowa’s nine AEAs will now charge $900 a day or $450 for a half day for general education and media services.

Here at ICAN, we’re proud to stand up for Iowa’s public schools. We must demand that our lawmakers prioritize public education funding. Every child, no matter their Zip Code or background, deserves access to a world-class education. We need policies that support all students, not just a privileged few.

Sue Dinsdale is the director of Iowa Citizen Action Network, a grassroots public interest organization committed to social change in Iowa. ICAN works in coalition with organizational affiliates from a wide range of constituencies from community, labor, family farms, small business &  thousands of individual members.