Why Sen Sinclair’s Support of Vouchers is Wrong for Rural Iowa

Gary Wamobld

Osceola, Iowa

-The majority of Iowans oppose vouchers.

-The majority of Iowans can’t access a private school even if they want to. This means rural folks are funding wealthy private schools they can’t even attend.

-After the third year of the new voucher program, there will be NO income limits for those who receive vouchers. This means that our public tax dollars will fund wealthy Iowan’s private education.

-A company in New York administers the voucher program. This means we are sending Iowa Tax dollars to New York to administer our education program.

-The cost to administer the voucher program has already doubled and for no apparent reason. How did Iowans find this out? Only because our State Auditor, Rob Sand, performed an audit and found the doubled cost. Gov Reynolds never released the change in price to the public.

-Private schools that accept vouchers are not subject to the same oversight and accountability as public schools. This means that private schools can spend their money on whatever they want, even if it isn’t for educational instruction. The only rule is that they cannot offer a rebate.

-Unlike public schools, private schools that accept vouchers don’t have to accept every student and do not need to be ADA compliant.

-For every increase in public school funding, there is a corresponding increase in private school funding. This means that if the state has a 2.5% increase in Supplemental State Aid, so will private schools. This drastically advantages private school students because there are fewer students in private schools.

-The money now funneled to private schools comes from the “General Fund,” the same fund that supports education in public schools. This means more hands in an already limited pot of money.

-The voucher experiment has been done in other states and its not going well.

Public schools are the backbone of rural Iowa communities, as they are usually one of the largest employers and touch everyone’s life in some way. We need to protect our legacy of strong public education, if you have a problem with your public school, go to a school board meeting and meet with teachers personally. Groups like ALEC, who named Sen Sinclair “Legislator of the Month” in January for her work in passing the voucher program and later named her “Legislator of the Year,” have no place in Iowa. Public education has always had strong bipartisan support in Iowa and that’s why we need to support candidates like Nicole Loew. A vote for Nicole Loew is a vote for public education, teachers, and our AEAs.