The Iowa school voucher program, enacted into law by Republicans, is going to be expensive. Private schools are ramping up to use the newly arriving funds.

Last Saturday, I attended a high school class reunion in Davenport where a group of classmates participated in a tour of our old school building led by Andy Craig, President of Scott County Catholic Schools. A classmate reported Craig was dealing with the influx of money from the new school voucher program into the county’s five Catholic Schools. Enrollment at the high school declined by more than half since I graduated in 1970. Plainly, though, they survived the 54 years since then without the state’s largess.

On May 3, House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst addressed the expense of school vouchers on Iowa Press:

O. Kay Henderson: Will ESA policy in Iowa be like Obamacare policy at the federal government? It’s going to have been in place for several years by then. Will it be impossible, as Democrats argue, to repeal it?

Konfrst: It’s a great question. I think that frankly school vouchers are unsustainable, so we will have no choice but to address how much money is going to school vouchers. Right now, it’s an unlimited appropriation and it comes off the top. So, before we fund public education and increase funding, we’re funding school vouchers. So, this year we know $180 million went to private schools and 60% of those families were already in private school, we’re just funding rich kids to go to private school with our tax dollars. And with an unlimited appropriation, we haven’t even gotten to the point where every Iowan is even eligible yet. That’s next year. So, once we start seeing that, if the dollars start going up so much, we’re going to have to roll back those costs because it’s simply not sustainable from a budget standpoint.

Henderson: Several years ago, when a former state legislator named Walt Rogers initially proposed that, the estimate was that it would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million. Is that the current estimate?

Konfrst: $300 million has been the first two years of this program. And, again, we’re not even to the point where the income limits have been taken off. So, we are, we’re going to see hundreds of millions of dollars spent on this, a billion dollars over five years is not unreasonable. And in a state like Iowa, that is simply not sustainable, especially when we remember that that money is coming, that money could be going to public schools to make it better for everyone. 54% of the vouchers so far have gone to 10 counties. So, how is this helping rural Iowa? But the budget for public education has been reduced statewide. So, it’s simply not a fair system. Iowans know that. That’s why they don’t like it. And it’s not sustainable.

Leader Konfrst was right then and the example of Arizona, released by ProPublica this week, shows how right she is.

Arizona, was the model for voucher programs across the country. It spent so much money paying private school tuition that it’s now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects. Among the projects facing budget cuts are water infrastructure projects, highway expansions and repairs, community colleges, and air conditioning in the state prison system. ProPublica called it a budget meltdown.

Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on vouchers to help kids who are already going to private school keep going to private school won’t just sink the budget, Lewis said. It’s funding that’s not going to the public schools, keeping them from becoming what they could and should be. (School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget by Eli Hager, ProPublica July 16, 2024).

Iowa is not Arizona insofar as we have a budget surplus to be used in case of emergency. However, one expects the emergency upon which it will be spent is the desire of wealthy Iowans for more tax cuts. I believe that bill is coming next year.

Just as my high school managed through declining enrollment and inadequate funding over 50 years, Iowa families will manage through the state’s intentional defunding of public education. What choice do we have? Well, we do have a choice: work to elect more Democrats to the Iowa Senate and House. Here’s a link to some ideas on how to do that. I would point out the governor is up for re-election in 2026. Check out the full article at ProPublica.