From our inbox: 

Petition alert from Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI):

[Wednesday] we filed an ethics complaint against Representative Dean Fisher (R-District 53) with the Chief Clerk of the Iowa House.

We believe Fisher is acting unethical with respect to House Ethics Rules by attempting to cash in on private school vouchers through his Tama-Toledo Christian School, a private school he founded and now serves as Board President.

Fisher campaigned on private school vouchers, voted for them, and now he’s trying to cash in. He plans to use voucher money to pay the bulk of the school’s operating costs (up to $900,000 – $1.2 million of public dollars every year). If that’s not unethical, I’m not sure what is.

We asked the House Ethics Committee to tell Rep. Fisher he cannot discuss, lobby for, or vote on any future legislation that continues or expands voucher benefits.

Governor Kim Reynolds attempted to pass private voucher bills in 2021, 2022, and finally succeeded in 2023 (House File 68) after the unusual move of primarying several Republican legislators. After redistricting in 2022, House District 53 put two Republican legislators against each other – anti-voucher David Maxwell and pro-voucher Dean Fisher. Fisher received Reynolds’ endorsement and won.

We will be sure to keep you posted on how this develops. In the meantime, we want to show strong support for ethical behavior in the Iowa Legislature. Next week, we will be filing an addendum to our complaint with names of Iowans across the state to show they care about this too. Add your name here!

For an honorable legislature,

Tim Glaza
Special Projects Director

P.S. You can check out the full complaint we filed linked here.