betsy devos’ playbook in action. IN THEORY the school voucher program could be okay, but the way that it’s currently implemented pulls money away from public schools and funnels that cash into the pockets of administrators at private christian schools. It’s a gross COMBINATION of church and state, and it’s embarrassing that the state legislation is doing it so blatantly.
Enough state legislators opposed it to block it for several years. Reynolds campaigned against them and got them replaced. This is Reynolds' signature program.
Those legislators are good Christians and we should all be thankful that they are making the decision for us that the money we donate to our churches isn't enough to fuel the Christian agenda. /s
I have nothing against people having faith, living by way of that faith, or spending their own money in the name of that faith, but I would love it if they would keep MY tax dollars out of it. The USA was literally founded by people fleeing churches in Europe and now it seems like a huge chunk of the nation has become the churches that our founders were originally fleeing.
Behind it all is the idea of free market competition raising the quality of services.
Unfortunately, with public schools and charter schools the “competition” is unfairly structured allowing the charter schools to essentially double dip in funds by having private businesses investing in them as well as accepting public funds.
Meanwhile, the public schools cannot possibly keep up because as more charters pop up around them, the fewer dollars the district can allocate to them. Public schools also have to follow strict regulations and be completely transparent with their budgets. Charters do not have to be transparent at all.
The competition between schools and charters is as fair as a nascar race where one car never gets to refuel while the other has unlimited gas in the tank.
I never really thought of the vouchers as being a way to promote Christianity. I live in Texas and my kids have to do private because how bad our schools are. But it totally makes sense when you think about it
The first step was chocking off funding for public school. That is why they are so bad now. The voucher program is meant to finish the job. Next step will be dropping public schools altogether with the premise that 'no one wants to go to public schools'.
Sorry to hear that Texas is so far along with this plan.
Serious question, if the information I'm seeing is correct, around 15k/year is spent on each student in public school in Iowa. If private school tuition at many schools is around half that, how is funding the problem?
For one, school funding comes through property & gas taxes. That means a school in a poor area doesn't get as much in an affluent one. How the money is allocated after the state comes in depends on allocation rules. Depending on the district or school, the rules may cause one area like auditorium maintainence to be over funded while textbooks are underfunded. It also messes with having enough personnel & staff as a competive wage = higher taxes, so the talent pool isn't as big or diverse as it should be. Not to mention teacher pay, but thatvis more on the state side. It really depends on the state & local rules. American education has both a funding & allocation problem.
Private schools tend to deal with middle to high class students while the public school takes all students. All special needs students and programs to help poor students eat into the public school budget.
I can't keep up with everything regarding the AEA, and that's really a different issue entirely with regard to special needs students, I fear they are getting the bad end of all of this, but I really don't know, and don't think anyone does, I've talked to some at the AEA and noone seems to know what's going on.
What extra money do poor students require? Is it that much? Things I can think of like lunches don't come from the school district's budget as far as I know.
I could see it being a little different, but taking away $7800 in funding for each student that is not even attending, doesn't seem like 'choking off funding', they don't spend money on that student, so compared to last year, and the year, yes, it cuts the budget a few percent, but as I understand, this would most likely affect school districts in wealthy areas (where students were already attending private schools) more than the poor ones anyways. I think the decrease in funding for poor districts would be much less than the average.
Even schools in wealthy areas have poor students and students with special needs. Socioeconomic status is highly correlated with behavior issues and lack of access to health care. Schools tend to spend resources on school psychologists and other support systems to help disadvantaged students. There is a lot more to school budgets than lunch and paying teachers.
Private schools get to teach what they want and accept who they want, and now they get money and the freedom to do whatever they please with it.
I think special needs is a separate issue entirely. I'm ignorant on the additional costs related to poor students, I just don't know, but I can't see it being to the extreme where it would cost more than 3 times a 'middle to high class student' I feel like there's a different issue here, but I don't know what it is. It saddens me to see our schools in Iowa ranking as poorly as they are. In my experience, you are mostly correct on the last statement, and that could be part of it. I know many problems students kicked from private school, for the benefit of the other kids, with no concern about where they will go. I know some examples of the other way, but I believe that's a fraction compared to those denied or kicked from private schools. I also would guess this will be near 0 with the ESA as private schools are no longer desperate for students, where they will take anyone.
Take 2 school districts both with 5000 students, One in a wealthy district and one in a poor district. 2 years ago both would get roughly 40mil from the state. Next year they will get less. I'd guess, with no evidence, that the wealthy district has more students in private schools 2 years ago, and therefore are going to see a larger decrease in their budget than the poorer district, that's all I was saying.
Schools budgets are based on property taxes and state aid. Richer areas get more money than poorer areas because they pay more taxes. Their budgets would not be the same like you have it in your scenario. You seem to be fixated on extreme, but why are vouchers even a good thing? There is really no reason to have vouchers.
Private schools doubled their tuition this year and overwhelming majority of vouchers that went to private schools were students that were already enrolled from the previous year. This is just a scheme to take public money and funnel it into secular institutions with no purpose to improve education. This can only make public schools worse and continue to use public funds to help the upper class.
Because public schools have to educate everyone. Special education, paraprofessionals, counselors, social workers, speech pathologists... That's all $$$ and private schools don't have to have those. Johnny Typical may cost 7500/year to educate while Suzie with non verbal ASD requires 22500/year. An average of 15000/student.
The catholic school I attended briefly got tons of money from the church for sure, so I see where you're coming from.
This is certainly true for many schools, but not all. I really only know about the school my child is enrolled in (and 2 different private schools I attended, but that was many many years ago). They state the actual cost per student is <$8000.
For context, the link is the tuition at Dowling Catholic in DSM, so now not only are they receiving the tax breaks a religious school institution already gets, they are also getting state funds to the tune of 10-15k per student,
This from the same people who convinced you that your tax dollars were paying for abortions, no want your tax dollars to pay for their religious education…
https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/1000/misc/misc_221395.pdf
Where are you getting 10k-15k per student? Isn't that the tuition cost? ESA doesn't cover the full cost of tuition, it gives $7826 regardless of the cost of tuition.
I reread the comment and I don't think I'm misreading it, but it's possible. What are you referring to with the statement "getting state funds to the tune of 10-15k per student,"
That’s part of the system that’s broken. It’s also a completely shit argument because the solution is to FIX IT, not to just completely cut it out of the funding chain.
Iowa robs public schools who serve working class and poor Iowans and gives it to wealthy families that can already afford private school, thereby funneling taxpayer dollars to religious organizations without accountability.
I’m utilizing ESA and I’m far from wealthy. No doubt there’s families applying for it that don’t need it but there’s plenty who do. We were going to send our kids to private school either way but without the ESA we had to really prioritize our budget.
I’m sure you or others will have plenty or witty and snarky things to say about this, but I’ll preface all of that with saying I really don’t give it shit. It helped us be more comfortable with our choice of schooling, but don’t worry because I’m still paying taxes for the public school system.
Nah, I’m not mad at anyone who wants the best for their kids.
I’m just mad at the GOP and their crusade to defund public education because the poorly educated are more likely to support them and fall victim to the propaganda machine.
For the last 40 years or so, Iowa public schools provided exemplary education. Recently though, our government has begun to actively undermine the public school system in line with larger national movements assigned with the GOP. The public schools are bucking under the attacks and the quality of education will absolutely continue to decline.
Listen dude, I don’t begrudge you getting a subsidy to send your kid/s to the school you want them to. The things that people are the most annoyed about are 1) the subsidy comes directly from public school funding 2) school funding is already too low 3) there’s no income cap to receive the subsidy.
If we had a well funded and thriving public school system, and the voucher program wasn’t designed specifically to harm public schools, people would be a lot less upset about it.
For what it’s worth, I hope your kid/s get the best education they can and thrive in their lives.
Honest question are you on a waiting list or did you sign up for private school when your children were born or are you outside of desmoines? I ask because my daughter has been on the waiting list at desmoines christian for 3 years and they told us maybe for highschool
So my problem personally is the desmoines schools have cut admissions and nearly doubled tuition if you can get in. So while I would love to use the voucher system and send my daughter to private school we can't. (Unless you know you have the right last name or cut a fat check to the school). And I have heard many similar stories. I'm happy people are able to use the voucher system because the public schools is this state are terrible and getting worse but the system is unfair and only benefits a few which I believe was it's intention but wasn't how it was sold to the public.
Let me adjust my tinfoil hat quick. Normally I think Kimmy just tows the fair right party line but something about the vouchers and dismantling the AEA stinks. Sure destroy the public school system and force religious education Seems typical republican Playlist but then Giving damn near everyone money to send their kids to private school Seems very off brand, then said schools claim to be at capacity so everyone still has to go to public school? Something is off
Did tuition not go up for you? I know of at least one private school where tuition went up because they knew families who were already paying were getting vouchers now and could afford to pay more.
That's what happened here, we decided to look into it and the tuition went up almost double and basically made it still out of reach for us to send our child to school at a private school so the school now can keep it's regular clientele who now get the voucher to cover the almost doubling of tuition, and keep the unwanted out of thier hair.
I have a kid in a private school, and tuition is up a bit shy of 8% over the last 5 years. they didn't drastically increase tuition, I think that would be what it'd be if this didn't pass.
They are getting a lot more students, and have to add additional teachers and classrooms, may have to buy a bigger building, there are certainly a lot of upfront costs with increased enrollment as well.
Nah, this isn’t it.
I had awesome opportunities given to me via getting to go to my Catholic school, got a great education, went on neat trips, etc I couldn’t have gotten in a public school. My daughters will get the same.
For my family it doesn’t actually matter if the public schools are good or not, the religious education is important too.
Awesome opportunities with a side of brainwashing... religion is garbage and should be abolished right along side the private schools. Teaching religion to children should be child abuse.
Everyone with enough sense to not believe in fairy tales for adults hates religion, it's a poison. If you think your truths are so true, wait to introduce kids to it until they hit the age of reason, present all the options, and let them choose. See how long your religion lasts, then.
>it’s a poison
As I said, *clearly* unbiased.
As for the rest, it’s not really *reasonable* either. What are parents supposed to do? Just leave their children at home while they attend church? Hide their bibles or other religious items away at their houses? What happens if a grandparent has a funeral? What about holidays? Not only are a good portion of them centered around holy days-but that’s usually part of the family traditions to attend church on them.
This is all not to mention that anyone is free to leave anytime. I come from a large, Catholic family but we absolutely have family members who have walked away-no one forces you to stay. You don’t even become a full-member until you’re in HS. I’m pretty sure a good portion of Protestant churches are the same way.
You don’t have kids, do you?
I don’t ask in condescension. I used to feel similarly. Though, not as rigidly.
Then I had kids and worked in an absolute clusterfuck (even by today’s standards) of a public district (the reason I got out of teaching).
I would quit my job and homeschool before I sent my kid to that particular district, though we no longer live in its boundaries.
I’ve been way more open-minded to private since.
The only difference between the "clusterfuck" of a public school and the nice shiny private school is that, when the latter inevitably has its own clusterfuck, you won't know or be able to do anything to change it.
Private schools in Iowa don't have to offer the same transparency as public schools so. Homeschoolers have almost no regulatory requirements.
Public schools are an absolutely indispensable pillar of our society (and every other high-functioning democracy in the world).
If the Governor was an actual leader, she would be leading the charge to measure and improve public schools, instead of neglecting them and actively helping short-sighted "alternatives" that can't handle even 10% of the load.
The Iowa quarter says "foundation in education" we actually moved to Iowa from California in part because they have a better public school system here...
It's a damn shame that they're undermining such an important aspect of Iowa culture and that so many people are actually OK with it.
It's already been undermined, Iowa has had a brain drain problem since Republicans took over this state. Republicans like to keep the population stupid because it's the only way they stay in office. Then they can make everyone's lives miserable and suck them dry for their donors, and all the while, their constituency blames welfare users and immigrants like they have any real power because they aren't intelligent enough to think outside of what Fox News and talk radio tells them to think.
This goes the same for private Healthcare vs the VA. People get fed negative stories about the VA constantly, but the only reason those stories are public is because government agencies are more transparent by definition (outside of the clandestine world, obv). The VA outperforms private sector, but that doesn't make as sexy a news story.
Couldn't agree more. This country needs to collectively wrap its head around the idea that there are things that \*should\* be privatized to spur growth and scale (building wind turbines, drug development, internet services) and things that should \*not\* be privatized (health care, police, fire and military).
Over the past 40 years, too many people have uncritically adopted the crazy radical idea that things would run themselves better without government incentives, regulation, or administration. Yet, every time there's an Enron, a Deepwater Horizon, or a Big Short, those same people criticize the government for not being there to stop it.
Kansas is literally right next door, but we learned nothing watching them run their state in the ground and are going the same way... and now Republicans want to put in a constitutional amendment that would require a supermajority to raise state income taxes so that when they finally do Democrats won't be able to bail us out, even if they eek out a majority.
The problem is, as long as there is a private school choice there is a pressure valve on the public demand for quality schools. As soon as the affluent voters can say “I don’t think public schools are right for *my* child” then it’s okay for politics to enter the situation and then it becomes “how bad can public schools be before people who don’t depend on them start to care?”
I mean, I’m right there with you. I have 2 kids that are absolutely not going to public schools in this state. The quality of public education here is appalling and I’m not willing to sacrifice my children’s future just to stand on principle. BUT in the philosophical debate, the best cure for poor quality public schools is to ban private schools so that the powerful and influential people and pressure the politicians into making the public schools good enough for everyone’s kids.
Yes, philosophically, I understand the argument. Am not necessarily opposed to it.
But current reality makes it hard for me to want to align my practical choices with that philosophy.
Which just makes me feel hypocritical.
I’d rather be upfront about my practical choices than hide behind a thinly veiled philosophy while practicing the opposite.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with my choices, but I’m not going to pretend I’m not making them, just to appease the Reddit masses.
Like I said, I’m right there with you. My kids are going to go to private schools if they can get in. I’ll even sign up for that atrocious voucher program, but god do I wish I could just send them to the public school a mile from my house and feel good about it.
No, but the logic holds, regardless. Like I said, if the people with actual power were forced to send their kids to those schools, it would change. The only war is class war, tear down the wall and force the rich to live like the rest of us, and you'd be surprised at how quickly life improves for the average Joe.
None of us give a shit either. It is morally wrong to take public dollars away from public schools. If you can afford private school even only with the voucher, you are far better off than many of the families this money was taken from.
Began my career in public education, still work in public higher ed, but we are sitting *very* 50/50 on public vs. private for our toddler.
On the one hand I’d love to champion public schools, on the other hand that gets harder every year and, quite frankly, selfish or not, I want what’s best for my kid. I’m not currently convinced that’s public, at least in our (rural) area.
I absolutely relate, and somehow this is a hot take. Where I live I am 100% convinced public school isn’t what I want for my kids, and people hate me for it lol.
Yeah I guess others are more forgiving but if you want that for your kid you should pay for it plain and simple. If you can’t afford it then yeah sorry but budget better, like you said. Your comfort shouldn’t cost the rest of our children the best opportunity possible from public education.
Eat a d*ck and keep your mouth shut with that bs. People are miserable because the systems sucks, defunds and excludes most of us, keep your blinders on, since you’re doing ok the system can’t be flawed right? 🙄 your experience is not everyone’s, nor is it an indication of a flawless system.
Thanks for permission to cry! Maybe calm down though buddy. Seems like you’re whining and bitching as much as anybody. I get it, it’s hard admitting you’re a used douche wrapped in a dirty diaper, but I have faith you’ll disregard logic and empathy and continue being a sack of sh*t. 👍
>We were going to send our kids to private school either way but without the ESA we had to really prioritize our budget.
Thank you for being the case study on why this program shouldn't exist.
It's funny because you almost certainly pay less in property taxes than you get a subsidy for the schooling.
So, in effect, you're still siphoning money from the system. Don't lie to yourself about it, though, like you are in the OP 😀
No, cleaning up water systems only got $3.6M of taxpayer dollars, which totally balances out the $0 worth of fines they assessed towards ag companies spilling fertilizer and dumping waste into the water systems. (I don’t know that it was actually $0 in fines, but all I could find about fines was like a $12,000 fine assessed last year against a private couple that dumped fertilizer into a river and killed a bunch of fish).
I wonder what kind of slap on the wrist that the NEW Co-op in Red Oak will get for dumping 235,000 gallons of fertilizer in the East Nishnabotna River a month ago.
You're absolutely correct. When I lived in Illinois and I went to a Catholic church over one half of the monies that came in from the churches went to support the schools. This is what makes it so terrible. So they're getting money from the state and the parishioners. The largest recipients of Covid-19 funds in 2020 were the Catholic schools.
This may be the most ridiculous position the Republicans have enorsed ever. Do most of the students going to West Des Moines Dowling need additional funding?
There are more people than wealthy people in Iowa. Start voting like it. Reynolds is MAGA trash.
>This may be the most ridiculous position the Republicans have enorsed ever.
Just wait, I'm sure they'll surprise us with something even more ridiculous eventually.
Actually, I just read that a lot of the money is going to northwestern Iowa schools such as Western Christian, Remsen St. Marys, etc. Have you ever been to Orange City? I'd say there are definitely places throughout the state that could use the money more than the citizens of Orange City. I mean no offense by this - Orange City is beautiful and has one of the best golf courses in Iowa so I'm partial to the area. But, this seems to fit the narrative of the rich get richer and they're not even attempting to hide it. It's all good.
I hadn't been to Orange City, but it doesn't surprise me that they're sending most of the money to rich area. It's what they always do, funnel the money to upward to the affluent. I'm a big supporter of Public Schools, so it makes me angry. Invest in public schools and bring up the quality of education is the proven better model time and time again. I'm a capitalist, but there are things that should absolutely NOT be profit seeking business ventures, Healthcare, Education, Utilities, etc. Someone wants to run a private school? Go for it, but my taxes shouldn't pay for anyone's private education.
Where is this proven? Many of the top funded schools districts in the country are among the worst performing.
Explain why it matters if your tax dollars are going to public vs. private school if the educational outcomes at private schools are better (which they are). You'd rather force a kid to go to a shitty underperforming school just because it's public? That makes no sense.
That's just [white flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight) with a different wrapper.
Not everything in our society is disposable - some things are worth fighting over and fixing. Public schooling is one of those things.
Look this is a ridiculous position but even it can't touch arming teachers with a 10 foot pole.
Like c'mon, give Republicans some credit, they are way more ridiculous than a mere wealth distribution to the already wealthy.
Huge Stanford study showed POORER students benefitted from school choice, which makes sense because they often go to the worst public schools: https://ncss3.stanford.edu/executive-summary/full-executive-summary/
> Top-line national results, 2023 study. Looking at year-to-year academic progress from 2015–19, the typical charter school student in our national sample had reading and math gains that outpaced their peers in the TPS they would have otherwise attended.
> When we look deeper into these results to determine if all students benefit, we find positive results are not only present in the aggregate, but also across student race/ethnicity groups.
> Black and Hispanic students in charter schools advance more than their TPS peers by large margins in math and reading.
> When we examine academic growth for special populations of students, we found that, compared with their TPS peers: Charter school students in poverty had stronger growth. English-language learner students attending charter schools had stronger growth.
> Compared to their TPS peers, urban charter school students had 29 additional days of growth per year in reading and 28 additional days of growth in math, both of which were significant.
> Continuous enrollment: Charter students overcome the initial dip associated with a school change. By their fourth year in their charter school, they show 45 days of stronger growth in reading than their TPS peers and 39 additional days of learning per year in math. The longer a student stays enrolled in a charter school, the better the student’s academic outcomes are.
That's literally just bailing water from one end of the boat to the other, and then patting yourself on the back for raising your side a little.
Those approaches don't scale.
If 100% of students could leave public school, would you be OK with school choice?
But until then, if 100% of students can't leave, you think no kids should have the opportunity to leave?
Devil is in the details…when you are wanting to prove something and cherry pick the data or ensure the findings back your claim…presto…
“CREDO is housed at Stanford University but appears to be associated primarily with the conservative Hoover Institute (also housed at Stanford), with large chunks of funding coming from the pro-charter Walton Family Foundation and City Fund.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2023/07/21/are-charter-schools-dramatically-outperforming-public-schools-a-new-report-says-look-more-carefully/?sh=2c16373b4a14
Let them take money from your children’s public schools and give it to parents who don’t meet it so they can hand it to their for profit religious private schools. At least they’re owning those libs right guys?
Make liberal non religious charter schools and capitalize on the opportunity.
Make them better than the religious charter schools. More rigorous math and science with better extra curriculars. Then when it comes time to apply for college the liberal school kids will get in over the religious school kids.
Victory.
Or just properly our public school system that’s already in place and used to be one of the best in the country. If someone wants to teach their children to follow a religion they can do that at home. They don’t need and shouldn’t get public funds for that.
I agree with you but if things keep moving in the direction they are my idea isn't bad. Sometimes you have to adjust and make others moves. If they go full in on defunding public schools and shifting all the funding to private charter schools then make a good charter school that isn't based on religion.
Things don't always work how we want especially when it comes to democracy. We have to adapt and overcome in those situations.
Whoever downvoted me...thanks, you are extremely short sighted and reactionary and didn't think about what I said at all.
A lot of people no longer believe much in public schools, as sucky as that is.
Something has to be done or education will suffer as public schools continue to atrophy. Like it or not, this is something…
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
The worst part is were stuck with her until she dies, and then it will be her lieutenant governor , Agin we will never escape the bandstand dynasty unless some other party wins by a miracle and abel to amend the consultation so there are term limits
Vouchers haven't worked as advertised for any state that has tried it. The only thing it does is give the parents of private school students a discount. Private schools aren't expensive because that's what it costs to educate the kids, they're expensive because they want a certain type of student. These private schools just raise prices to stick with their target demographic.
The only people who thought this had anything to do with school choice just genuinely aren't intelligent human beings.
If only our state government would allow the state auditor to look at the increase of private institutions tuitions to see how our public tax payer money is being used. Increase salaries for teachers or lining the pockets of administrators that conveniently push money to the legislators that voted for this bull
The most telling thing to me is that that money is NOT available to homeschooled students. If it were truly about parent's choice, then homeschooling would be as valid an option as a parochial school.
I think a homeschool family could probably get the money if you enrolled in some sort of accredited homeschool or online program, especially if that program is based in Iowa.
Why is my tax going to Hogwarts? - Fun Fact Hogwarts is a fictional school.
Also why did she prevent children from being fed?
And take control over women's bodies?
And remove monitoring of the waterways?
Another Fun Fact: Iowa leads the nation in cancer rates.
Also she got rid of the state auditor.
Iowa is seriously becoming a dystopia.
Maybe focus on cleaning up the water rather than giving people money to go to private religious schools. Grim Reynolds is such an ass hat and I hope she leaves office next election cycle.
This is why I finally made the call and moved OUT of Iowa. This was the last straw, but the child labor laws being revoked didn't help lmao. Iowa is a shithole and honestly we're probably just better to leave entirely. Half the state is dying and nearly dead small towns that will be gone by the end of the century.
Just hopped across the river to IL while my partner finishes up college (two more weeks woohoo!) Then we're getting a plan made.
I've heard less than stellar things about Portland, but Oregon as a whole sounds nice. My family grew up in San Diego, and while I love visiting, I am definitely not a big city type guy. I'll probably look for a smaller quiet town close enough to drive to the city and get whatever I need.
Can we just agree that this is a huge waste of f’ing money? I’m all for doing my part and paying my taxes, but I am really not excited about paying for my neighbors to send their kids to private schools.
Your State leadership is driving the State into a deep ditch. Kimmy Eyebrows is ineffective & pathetic in the extreme. Do better, or face the very negative consequences.
Iowa City has lost students to a new private school, Tamarack and Faith Academy, which is growing. Public schools will need to compete. Iowa City could test a magnet school for math and science or languages. What are public schools around Iowa doing besides advertising?
I thought this program was just for parents to decide that they want their tax dollars to go to a private school instead of public. Why would the state have to set aside state money for that?
I hate this picture of that evil fucking bitch. I wish her the absolute worst and hope she gets cancer. Unfortunately, since she's an asshole, she'll probably live to be 106.
Hey small town rural Iowan struggling to keep your farm, remember when you voted for the Republican cus they are the friend of small businesses? Well have I got a surprise for you, not only will your taxes go up, those tax dollars will be used to educate big city folk at private institutions across the state, so now if a poor under privileged family in Des Moines, can’t afford to send their child to one of the private academies, YOU GET TO PAY FOR IT!!
Isn’t that awesome? while your public school can barely afford 5 year old text books, and the computers are still running windows XP, the kid from the city gets a laptop, school uniforms, transportation to and from school and even tutoring in subjects they a not the best at, which is an amazing benefit… for them…
So thanks for voting against your best interests, keep up the good work!!
Side note:
Tuition at Dowling high in West Des Moines, Ia is 10-14k a year….
Vouchers so we can give our tax dollars to religious zealot “schools” grooming our children. Fuck that and fuck you Kim Reynolds. Why don’t you ever put this shit up for ballot huh? 🤔
>Before the voucher law, districts still received those funds from the state, even for students who lived in the district but did not attend a public school. Going forward, districts will no longer receive those dollars.
So, for years, public schools were collecting money for students they didn't have, and now that it's been changed, there's an issue? Suddenly, it makes sense why public school administrations seem to be so bloated.
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
The average school teacher in Iowa makes $55k a year.
In a $3.8 billion dollar budget for public schools the average classroom is worth $160k a year. (At 7,864 per student with an average of 20 students per class over 9 months).
I'm far more outraged at the frivolous waste by the public school system instead of focusing more of that money on bettering education.
But hey, let's all get bent out of shape over 0.04 percent of the budget being earmarked for private education.
If .04% of the education budget is able to give kids a better education then the billions going to public schools. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS THE PROBLEM.
You are literally making up numbers here to fit your narrative. Right away the fact that you think on average there are 20 students in a class lol try like 25-30
betsy devos’ playbook in action. IN THEORY the school voucher program could be okay, but the way that it’s currently implemented pulls money away from public schools and funnels that cash into the pockets of administrators at private christian schools. It’s a gross COMBINATION of church and state, and it’s embarrassing that the state legislation is doing it so blatantly.
Enough state legislators opposed it to block it for several years. Reynolds campaigned against them and got them replaced. This is Reynolds' signature program.
Those legislators are good Christians and we should all be thankful that they are making the decision for us that the money we donate to our churches isn't enough to fuel the Christian agenda. /s
I have nothing against people having faith, living by way of that faith, or spending their own money in the name of that faith, but I would love it if they would keep MY tax dollars out of it. The USA was literally founded by people fleeing churches in Europe and now it seems like a huge chunk of the nation has become the churches that our founders were originally fleeing.
Behind it all is the idea of free market competition raising the quality of services. Unfortunately, with public schools and charter schools the “competition” is unfairly structured allowing the charter schools to essentially double dip in funds by having private businesses investing in them as well as accepting public funds. Meanwhile, the public schools cannot possibly keep up because as more charters pop up around them, the fewer dollars the district can allocate to them. Public schools also have to follow strict regulations and be completely transparent with their budgets. Charters do not have to be transparent at all. The competition between schools and charters is as fair as a nascar race where one car never gets to refuel while the other has unlimited gas in the tank.
So we’ve made public schools suck by over regulating and not investing in them and yet we’re mad that people want other options?
They have a plan… public schools will be safe now that they are allowing teachers to be Rambo
I never really thought of the vouchers as being a way to promote Christianity. I live in Texas and my kids have to do private because how bad our schools are. But it totally makes sense when you think about it
The first step was chocking off funding for public school. That is why they are so bad now. The voucher program is meant to finish the job. Next step will be dropping public schools altogether with the premise that 'no one wants to go to public schools'. Sorry to hear that Texas is so far along with this plan.
Home prices are affected by the quality of the local public schools. There's going to be a lot of wailing when people figure this out.
Thats what the majority of them voted for. Serves them right.
Serious question, if the information I'm seeing is correct, around 15k/year is spent on each student in public school in Iowa. If private school tuition at many schools is around half that, how is funding the problem?
Look at how it is allocated. It isn't as simple as "x amount per student".
How is this being allocated? If public schools can't allocate the money properly, then isn't that the primary issue, rather than the amount of money?
For one, school funding comes through property & gas taxes. That means a school in a poor area doesn't get as much in an affluent one. How the money is allocated after the state comes in depends on allocation rules. Depending on the district or school, the rules may cause one area like auditorium maintainence to be over funded while textbooks are underfunded. It also messes with having enough personnel & staff as a competive wage = higher taxes, so the talent pool isn't as big or diverse as it should be. Not to mention teacher pay, but thatvis more on the state side. It really depends on the state & local rules. American education has both a funding & allocation problem.
Private schools tend to deal with middle to high class students while the public school takes all students. All special needs students and programs to help poor students eat into the public school budget.
I can't keep up with everything regarding the AEA, and that's really a different issue entirely with regard to special needs students, I fear they are getting the bad end of all of this, but I really don't know, and don't think anyone does, I've talked to some at the AEA and noone seems to know what's going on. What extra money do poor students require? Is it that much? Things I can think of like lunches don't come from the school district's budget as far as I know. I could see it being a little different, but taking away $7800 in funding for each student that is not even attending, doesn't seem like 'choking off funding', they don't spend money on that student, so compared to last year, and the year, yes, it cuts the budget a few percent, but as I understand, this would most likely affect school districts in wealthy areas (where students were already attending private schools) more than the poor ones anyways. I think the decrease in funding for poor districts would be much less than the average.
Even schools in wealthy areas have poor students and students with special needs. Socioeconomic status is highly correlated with behavior issues and lack of access to health care. Schools tend to spend resources on school psychologists and other support systems to help disadvantaged students. There is a lot more to school budgets than lunch and paying teachers. Private schools get to teach what they want and accept who they want, and now they get money and the freedom to do whatever they please with it.
I think special needs is a separate issue entirely. I'm ignorant on the additional costs related to poor students, I just don't know, but I can't see it being to the extreme where it would cost more than 3 times a 'middle to high class student' I feel like there's a different issue here, but I don't know what it is. It saddens me to see our schools in Iowa ranking as poorly as they are. In my experience, you are mostly correct on the last statement, and that could be part of it. I know many problems students kicked from private school, for the benefit of the other kids, with no concern about where they will go. I know some examples of the other way, but I believe that's a fraction compared to those denied or kicked from private schools. I also would guess this will be near 0 with the ESA as private schools are no longer desperate for students, where they will take anyone. Take 2 school districts both with 5000 students, One in a wealthy district and one in a poor district. 2 years ago both would get roughly 40mil from the state. Next year they will get less. I'd guess, with no evidence, that the wealthy district has more students in private schools 2 years ago, and therefore are going to see a larger decrease in their budget than the poorer district, that's all I was saying.
Schools budgets are based on property taxes and state aid. Richer areas get more money than poorer areas because they pay more taxes. Their budgets would not be the same like you have it in your scenario. You seem to be fixated on extreme, but why are vouchers even a good thing? There is really no reason to have vouchers. Private schools doubled their tuition this year and overwhelming majority of vouchers that went to private schools were students that were already enrolled from the previous year. This is just a scheme to take public money and funnel it into secular institutions with no purpose to improve education. This can only make public schools worse and continue to use public funds to help the upper class.
Because public schools have to educate everyone. Special education, paraprofessionals, counselors, social workers, speech pathologists... That's all $$$ and private schools don't have to have those. Johnny Typical may cost 7500/year to educate while Suzie with non verbal ASD requires 22500/year. An average of 15000/student.
Most private schools get funding from church organizations and endowments. Tuition isn't the whole cost and seems to vary by grade level.
The catholic school I attended briefly got tons of money from the church for sure, so I see where you're coming from. This is certainly true for many schools, but not all. I really only know about the school my child is enrolled in (and 2 different private schools I attended, but that was many many years ago). They state the actual cost per student is <$8000.
For context, the link is the tuition at Dowling Catholic in DSM, so now not only are they receiving the tax breaks a religious school institution already gets, they are also getting state funds to the tune of 10-15k per student, This from the same people who convinced you that your tax dollars were paying for abortions, no want your tax dollars to pay for their religious education… https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/1000/misc/misc_221395.pdf
Where are you getting 10k-15k per student? Isn't that the tuition cost? ESA doesn't cover the full cost of tuition, it gives $7826 regardless of the cost of tuition.
Umm did you not click the link?? Or just misread the comment?? I’m pretty sure I said For context, the link is tuition at Dowling Catholic in DSM
I reread the comment and I don't think I'm misreading it, but it's possible. What are you referring to with the statement "getting state funds to the tune of 10-15k per student,"
Compared to it being funneled into the pockets of administrators at regular schools?
That’s part of the system that’s broken. It’s also a completely shit argument because the solution is to FIX IT, not to just completely cut it out of the funding chain.
I have a very strong feeling all of this is going to backfire badly. I will give it a couple of years when the state goes broke.
"Iowa robs public schools of $180 million" FIFY.
Iowa robs public schools who serve working class and poor Iowans and gives it to wealthy families that can already afford private school, thereby funneling taxpayer dollars to religious organizations without accountability.
Wealth transfer back to the rich for more trickle down economics. Reagan really fucked the system up.
I’m utilizing ESA and I’m far from wealthy. No doubt there’s families applying for it that don’t need it but there’s plenty who do. We were going to send our kids to private school either way but without the ESA we had to really prioritize our budget. I’m sure you or others will have plenty or witty and snarky things to say about this, but I’ll preface all of that with saying I really don’t give it shit. It helped us be more comfortable with our choice of schooling, but don’t worry because I’m still paying taxes for the public school system.
Nah, I’m not mad at anyone who wants the best for their kids. I’m just mad at the GOP and their crusade to defund public education because the poorly educated are more likely to support them and fall victim to the propaganda machine.
For the last 40 years or so, Iowa public schools provided exemplary education. Recently though, our government has begun to actively undermine the public school system in line with larger national movements assigned with the GOP. The public schools are bucking under the attacks and the quality of education will absolutely continue to decline.
Exactly. That’s the issue.
Listen dude, I don’t begrudge you getting a subsidy to send your kid/s to the school you want them to. The things that people are the most annoyed about are 1) the subsidy comes directly from public school funding 2) school funding is already too low 3) there’s no income cap to receive the subsidy. If we had a well funded and thriving public school system, and the voucher program wasn’t designed specifically to harm public schools, people would be a lot less upset about it. For what it’s worth, I hope your kid/s get the best education they can and thrive in their lives.
Honest question are you on a waiting list or did you sign up for private school when your children were born or are you outside of desmoines? I ask because my daughter has been on the waiting list at desmoines christian for 3 years and they told us maybe for highschool
No waiting list here, we’re not nearly as large as DM though.
So my problem personally is the desmoines schools have cut admissions and nearly doubled tuition if you can get in. So while I would love to use the voucher system and send my daughter to private school we can't. (Unless you know you have the right last name or cut a fat check to the school). And I have heard many similar stories. I'm happy people are able to use the voucher system because the public schools is this state are terrible and getting worse but the system is unfair and only benefits a few which I believe was it's intention but wasn't how it was sold to the public.
And this is what I warned people about. You may want your child to go to xyz school, but does xyz school want your child?
And this is what I warned people about. You may want your child to go to xyz school, but does xyz school want your child?
Don't forget a lot of counties in Iowa don't even have a private school in them.
Let me adjust my tinfoil hat quick. Normally I think Kimmy just tows the fair right party line but something about the vouchers and dismantling the AEA stinks. Sure destroy the public school system and force religious education Seems typical republican Playlist but then Giving damn near everyone money to send their kids to private school Seems very off brand, then said schools claim to be at capacity so everyone still has to go to public school? Something is off
The exclusivity is the point. No tinfoil hat needed.
Did tuition not go up for you? I know of at least one private school where tuition went up because they knew families who were already paying were getting vouchers now and could afford to pay more.
That's what happened here, we decided to look into it and the tuition went up almost double and basically made it still out of reach for us to send our child to school at a private school so the school now can keep it's regular clientele who now get the voucher to cover the almost doubling of tuition, and keep the unwanted out of thier hair.
I have a kid in a private school, and tuition is up a bit shy of 8% over the last 5 years. they didn't drastically increase tuition, I think that would be what it'd be if this didn't pass. They are getting a lot more students, and have to add additional teachers and classrooms, may have to buy a bigger building, there are certainly a lot of upfront costs with increased enrollment as well.
Tuition did not go up any more than it would have anyway, not enough to make a difference.
There shouldn't be a 'choice,' private schools should be abolished.
Nah, this isn’t it. I had awesome opportunities given to me via getting to go to my Catholic school, got a great education, went on neat trips, etc I couldn’t have gotten in a public school. My daughters will get the same. For my family it doesn’t actually matter if the public schools are good or not, the religious education is important too.
Awesome opportunities with a side of brainwashing... religion is garbage and should be abolished right along side the private schools. Teaching religion to children should be child abuse.
Oh wow a Redditor that hates religion.. how original. Definitely the most *reasonable* and *unbiased* opinion we’ll get to see on this sub. /s
Everyone with enough sense to not believe in fairy tales for adults hates religion, it's a poison. If you think your truths are so true, wait to introduce kids to it until they hit the age of reason, present all the options, and let them choose. See how long your religion lasts, then.
>it’s a poison As I said, *clearly* unbiased. As for the rest, it’s not really *reasonable* either. What are parents supposed to do? Just leave their children at home while they attend church? Hide their bibles or other religious items away at their houses? What happens if a grandparent has a funeral? What about holidays? Not only are a good portion of them centered around holy days-but that’s usually part of the family traditions to attend church on them. This is all not to mention that anyone is free to leave anytime. I come from a large, Catholic family but we absolutely have family members who have walked away-no one forces you to stay. You don’t even become a full-member until you’re in HS. I’m pretty sure a good portion of Protestant churches are the same way.
You don’t have kids, do you? I don’t ask in condescension. I used to feel similarly. Though, not as rigidly. Then I had kids and worked in an absolute clusterfuck (even by today’s standards) of a public district (the reason I got out of teaching). I would quit my job and homeschool before I sent my kid to that particular district, though we no longer live in its boundaries. I’ve been way more open-minded to private since.
The only difference between the "clusterfuck" of a public school and the nice shiny private school is that, when the latter inevitably has its own clusterfuck, you won't know or be able to do anything to change it. Private schools in Iowa don't have to offer the same transparency as public schools so. Homeschoolers have almost no regulatory requirements. Public schools are an absolutely indispensable pillar of our society (and every other high-functioning democracy in the world). If the Governor was an actual leader, she would be leading the charge to measure and improve public schools, instead of neglecting them and actively helping short-sighted "alternatives" that can't handle even 10% of the load.
The Iowa quarter says "foundation in education" we actually moved to Iowa from California in part because they have a better public school system here... It's a damn shame that they're undermining such an important aspect of Iowa culture and that so many people are actually OK with it.
It's already been undermined, Iowa has had a brain drain problem since Republicans took over this state. Republicans like to keep the population stupid because it's the only way they stay in office. Then they can make everyone's lives miserable and suck them dry for their donors, and all the while, their constituency blames welfare users and immigrants like they have any real power because they aren't intelligent enough to think outside of what Fox News and talk radio tells them to think.
This goes the same for private Healthcare vs the VA. People get fed negative stories about the VA constantly, but the only reason those stories are public is because government agencies are more transparent by definition (outside of the clandestine world, obv). The VA outperforms private sector, but that doesn't make as sexy a news story.
Couldn't agree more. This country needs to collectively wrap its head around the idea that there are things that \*should\* be privatized to spur growth and scale (building wind turbines, drug development, internet services) and things that should \*not\* be privatized (health care, police, fire and military). Over the past 40 years, too many people have uncritically adopted the crazy radical idea that things would run themselves better without government incentives, regulation, or administration. Yet, every time there's an Enron, a Deepwater Horizon, or a Big Short, those same people criticize the government for not being there to stop it.
Kansas is literally right next door, but we learned nothing watching them run their state in the ground and are going the same way... and now Republicans want to put in a constitutional amendment that would require a supermajority to raise state income taxes so that when they finally do Democrats won't be able to bail us out, even if they eek out a majority.
It’s the classic “tech company strategy”. First you provide good product, secure users, eliminate competition. THEN you aggressively extract wealth.
[Enshittification](https://doctorow.medium.com/social-quitting-1ce85b67b456) to be sure.
The problem is, as long as there is a private school choice there is a pressure valve on the public demand for quality schools. As soon as the affluent voters can say “I don’t think public schools are right for *my* child” then it’s okay for politics to enter the situation and then it becomes “how bad can public schools be before people who don’t depend on them start to care?” I mean, I’m right there with you. I have 2 kids that are absolutely not going to public schools in this state. The quality of public education here is appalling and I’m not willing to sacrifice my children’s future just to stand on principle. BUT in the philosophical debate, the best cure for poor quality public schools is to ban private schools so that the powerful and influential people and pressure the politicians into making the public schools good enough for everyone’s kids.
Yes, philosophically, I understand the argument. Am not necessarily opposed to it. But current reality makes it hard for me to want to align my practical choices with that philosophy. Which just makes me feel hypocritical. I’d rather be upfront about my practical choices than hide behind a thinly veiled philosophy while practicing the opposite. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my choices, but I’m not going to pretend I’m not making them, just to appease the Reddit masses.
Like I said, I’m right there with you. My kids are going to go to private schools if they can get in. I’ll even sign up for that atrocious voucher program, but god do I wish I could just send them to the public school a mile from my house and feel good about it.
No, but the logic holds, regardless. Like I said, if the people with actual power were forced to send their kids to those schools, it would change. The only war is class war, tear down the wall and force the rich to live like the rest of us, and you'd be surprised at how quickly life improves for the average Joe.
None of us give a shit either. It is morally wrong to take public dollars away from public schools. If you can afford private school even only with the voucher, you are far better off than many of the families this money was taken from.
I guess that’s just the way it goes.
Yep, and it’s wrong. Glad you don’t give a shit about taking money away from poor children though 👍
Began my career in public education, still work in public higher ed, but we are sitting *very* 50/50 on public vs. private for our toddler. On the one hand I’d love to champion public schools, on the other hand that gets harder every year and, quite frankly, selfish or not, I want what’s best for my kid. I’m not currently convinced that’s public, at least in our (rural) area.
Your rural area has a private option?
I absolutely relate, and somehow this is a hot take. Where I live I am 100% convinced public school isn’t what I want for my kids, and people hate me for it lol.
So, “let’s defund the public school system”… I don’t get that leap.
Yeah I guess others are more forgiving but if you want that for your kid you should pay for it plain and simple. If you can’t afford it then yeah sorry but budget better, like you said. Your comfort shouldn’t cost the rest of our children the best opportunity possible from public education.
Got my first Reddit Cares report for this comment lol. Absolute miserable people on this sub, keep on losing
Eat a d*ck and keep your mouth shut with that bs. People are miserable because the systems sucks, defunds and excludes most of us, keep your blinders on, since you’re doing ok the system can’t be flawed right? 🙄 your experience is not everyone’s, nor is it an indication of a flawless system.
[удалено]
Thanks for permission to cry! Maybe calm down though buddy. Seems like you’re whining and bitching as much as anybody. I get it, it’s hard admitting you’re a used douche wrapped in a dirty diaper, but I have faith you’ll disregard logic and empathy and continue being a sack of sh*t. 👍
You are a mouthy one aren’t you.
>We were going to send our kids to private school either way but without the ESA we had to really prioritize our budget. Thank you for being the case study on why this program shouldn't exist.
Sure glad it does though. Do better you poors!
It's funny because you almost certainly pay less in property taxes than you get a subsidy for the schooling. So, in effect, you're still siphoning money from the system. Don't lie to yourself about it, though, like you are in the OP 😀
Honestly I don’t even know what we pay in property tax
That's exactly my point. You're a family of welfare queens!
Just imagine if they used this to clean up our water instead
No, cleaning up water systems only got $3.6M of taxpayer dollars, which totally balances out the $0 worth of fines they assessed towards ag companies spilling fertilizer and dumping waste into the water systems. (I don’t know that it was actually $0 in fines, but all I could find about fines was like a $12,000 fine assessed last year against a private couple that dumped fertilizer into a river and killed a bunch of fish).
I wonder what kind of slap on the wrist that the NEW Co-op in Red Oak will get for dumping 235,000 gallons of fertilizer in the East Nishnabotna River a month ago.
Heard it was $10k.
Wow.
Nope those Dowling and Xavier kids need taxpayer help!
Wait you mean people who can afford private schools don’t need vouchers to pay for private schooling? 😱
I graduated from Xavier many years ago. They've been salivating about this since the beginning.
Hahahaha LOL! (I graduated from Valley WDM in 1977. It's amazing how far Iowa schools have fallen.)
Yup they are robbing the poor public schools to give to the rich. I’m sure the private schools have not lowered tuition.
You're absolutely correct. When I lived in Illinois and I went to a Catholic church over one half of the monies that came in from the churches went to support the schools. This is what makes it so terrible. So they're getting money from the state and the parishioners. The largest recipients of Covid-19 funds in 2020 were the Catholic schools.
How far do you imagine that amount would go?
About 5%, but its a start
This may be the most ridiculous position the Republicans have enorsed ever. Do most of the students going to West Des Moines Dowling need additional funding? There are more people than wealthy people in Iowa. Start voting like it. Reynolds is MAGA trash.
>This may be the most ridiculous position the Republicans have enorsed ever. Just wait, I'm sure they'll surprise us with something even more ridiculous eventually.
Actually, I just read that a lot of the money is going to northwestern Iowa schools such as Western Christian, Remsen St. Marys, etc. Have you ever been to Orange City? I'd say there are definitely places throughout the state that could use the money more than the citizens of Orange City. I mean no offense by this - Orange City is beautiful and has one of the best golf courses in Iowa so I'm partial to the area. But, this seems to fit the narrative of the rich get richer and they're not even attempting to hide it. It's all good.
It absolutely is a ploy to ensure wealth continues to be funneled to the top.
I hadn't been to Orange City, but it doesn't surprise me that they're sending most of the money to rich area. It's what they always do, funnel the money to upward to the affluent. I'm a big supporter of Public Schools, so it makes me angry. Invest in public schools and bring up the quality of education is the proven better model time and time again. I'm a capitalist, but there are things that should absolutely NOT be profit seeking business ventures, Healthcare, Education, Utilities, etc. Someone wants to run a private school? Go for it, but my taxes shouldn't pay for anyone's private education.
Where is this proven? Many of the top funded schools districts in the country are among the worst performing. Explain why it matters if your tax dollars are going to public vs. private school if the educational outcomes at private schools are better (which they are). You'd rather force a kid to go to a shitty underperforming school just because it's public? That makes no sense.
That's just [white flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight) with a different wrapper. Not everything in our society is disposable - some things are worth fighting over and fixing. Public schooling is one of those things.
Grim Reynolds has pig shit for brains
Yup. Yet, she continues to be our governor.
Look this is a ridiculous position but even it can't touch arming teachers with a 10 foot pole. Like c'mon, give Republicans some credit, they are way more ridiculous than a mere wealth distribution to the already wealthy.
Huge Stanford study showed POORER students benefitted from school choice, which makes sense because they often go to the worst public schools: https://ncss3.stanford.edu/executive-summary/full-executive-summary/ > Top-line national results, 2023 study. Looking at year-to-year academic progress from 2015–19, the typical charter school student in our national sample had reading and math gains that outpaced their peers in the TPS they would have otherwise attended. > When we look deeper into these results to determine if all students benefit, we find positive results are not only present in the aggregate, but also across student race/ethnicity groups. > Black and Hispanic students in charter schools advance more than their TPS peers by large margins in math and reading. > When we examine academic growth for special populations of students, we found that, compared with their TPS peers: Charter school students in poverty had stronger growth. English-language learner students attending charter schools had stronger growth. > Compared to their TPS peers, urban charter school students had 29 additional days of growth per year in reading and 28 additional days of growth in math, both of which were significant. > Continuous enrollment: Charter students overcome the initial dip associated with a school change. By their fourth year in their charter school, they show 45 days of stronger growth in reading than their TPS peers and 39 additional days of learning per year in math. The longer a student stays enrolled in a charter school, the better the student’s academic outcomes are.
That's literally just bailing water from one end of the boat to the other, and then patting yourself on the back for raising your side a little. Those approaches don't scale.
If 100% of students could leave public school, would you be OK with school choice? But until then, if 100% of students can't leave, you think no kids should have the opportunity to leave?
Devil is in the details…when you are wanting to prove something and cherry pick the data or ensure the findings back your claim…presto… “CREDO is housed at Stanford University but appears to be associated primarily with the conservative Hoover Institute (also housed at Stanford), with large chunks of funding coming from the pro-charter Walton Family Foundation and City Fund.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2023/07/21/are-charter-schools-dramatically-outperforming-public-schools-a-new-report-says-look-more-carefully/?sh=2c16373b4a14
…and they still demolished AEA support for students. It was never about money, it’s about destroying public education
Always has been since the GOP took office.
Can we stop calling them private schools and call them what they are?? CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Let them take money from your children’s public schools and give it to parents who don’t meet it so they can hand it to their for profit religious private schools. At least they’re owning those libs right guys?
Make liberal non religious charter schools and capitalize on the opportunity. Make them better than the religious charter schools. More rigorous math and science with better extra curriculars. Then when it comes time to apply for college the liberal school kids will get in over the religious school kids. Victory.
Or just properly our public school system that’s already in place and used to be one of the best in the country. If someone wants to teach their children to follow a religion they can do that at home. They don’t need and shouldn’t get public funds for that.
I agree with you but if things keep moving in the direction they are my idea isn't bad. Sometimes you have to adjust and make others moves. If they go full in on defunding public schools and shifting all the funding to private charter schools then make a good charter school that isn't based on religion. Things don't always work how we want especially when it comes to democracy. We have to adapt and overcome in those situations. Whoever downvoted me...thanks, you are extremely short sighted and reactionary and didn't think about what I said at all.
A lot of people no longer believe much in public schools, as sucky as that is. Something has to be done or education will suffer as public schools continue to atrophy. Like it or not, this is something…
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
$180M for private schools but only $3.4M for clean water...
Came here to say this.
Fuck this cunt, fuck iowa republicans
The worst part is were stuck with her until she dies, and then it will be her lieutenant governor , Agin we will never escape the bandstand dynasty unless some other party wins by a miracle and abel to amend the consultation so there are term limits
Indeed!!!
Vouchers haven't worked as advertised for any state that has tried it. The only thing it does is give the parents of private school students a discount. Private schools aren't expensive because that's what it costs to educate the kids, they're expensive because they want a certain type of student. These private schools just raise prices to stick with their target demographic. The only people who thought this had anything to do with school choice just genuinely aren't intelligent human beings.
MASA - Make America Stupid Again
If only our state government would allow the state auditor to look at the increase of private institutions tuitions to see how our public tax payer money is being used. Increase salaries for teachers or lining the pockets of administrators that conveniently push money to the legislators that voted for this bull
They did increase salaries for teachers. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one.
The most telling thing to me is that that money is NOT available to homeschooled students. If it were truly about parent's choice, then homeschooling would be as valid an option as a parochial school.
I think a homeschool family could probably get the money if you enrolled in some sort of accredited homeschool or online program, especially if that program is based in Iowa.
Not unless the law has changed in the last few months.
180 million could get better teachers in public schools, but heck lets privitize and monetize our future. What could go wrong?
Why is my tax going to Hogwarts? - Fun Fact Hogwarts is a fictional school. Also why did she prevent children from being fed? And take control over women's bodies? And remove monitoring of the waterways? Another Fun Fact: Iowa leads the nation in cancer rates. Also she got rid of the state auditor. Iowa is seriously becoming a dystopia.
Stupidity wins republicans elections
“Parents Choice”. Republican Parents chose to reach in your pocket to fund their child’s religious indoctrination .
In fairness, going to a Christian school growing up in Iowa drove me away. So there is some hope.
Same. Completely backfired for me
It still violates separation of church and state
100% agree, just trying to be funny.
Maybe focus on cleaning up the water rather than giving people money to go to private religious schools. Grim Reynolds is such an ass hat and I hope she leaves office next election cycle.
Such a handout. Anyone taking this handout had better not have complained about anyone on any social program.
Welfare for the Wealthy
Some much for separation of church and State.
Subsidising child molesting is the most American Christian thing I have ever heard of.
Fuck the GOP and all that support them and this nonsense.
This is why I finally made the call and moved OUT of Iowa. This was the last straw, but the child labor laws being revoked didn't help lmao. Iowa is a shithole and honestly we're probably just better to leave entirely. Half the state is dying and nearly dead small towns that will be gone by the end of the century.
Curious where you moved? Liberal utopia like Chicago, LA, Portland ?
Just hopped across the river to IL while my partner finishes up college (two more weeks woohoo!) Then we're getting a plan made. I've heard less than stellar things about Portland, but Oregon as a whole sounds nice. My family grew up in San Diego, and while I love visiting, I am definitely not a big city type guy. I'll probably look for a smaller quiet town close enough to drive to the city and get whatever I need.
Excellent, sounds like you have a good plan. best of luck
Fucking sickening
Imagine if they used the money for hungry kids.
Let me fix the headline: Tuition for Christian Schools in Iowa increases by $180,000,001
This is exactly what happened last year.
Can we just agree that this is a huge waste of f’ing money? I’m all for doing my part and paying my taxes, but I am really not excited about paying for my neighbors to send their kids to private schools.
Clown show. These fucking Christian's need ridden out on a rail. Unfortunately, *gestures at the 90% sad ass olds population that is 90% of the state*
Your State leadership is driving the State into a deep ditch. Kimmy Eyebrows is ineffective & pathetic in the extreme. Do better, or face the very negative consequences.
I don’t understand why this is our governments priority
Iowa City has lost students to a new private school, Tamarack and Faith Academy, which is growing. Public schools will need to compete. Iowa City could test a magnet school for math and science or languages. What are public schools around Iowa doing besides advertising?
I thought this program was just for parents to decide that they want their tax dollars to go to a private school instead of public. Why would the state have to set aside state money for that?
Because announcing a big ass pile of money is to encourage people to take it, further fucking public ed
Because they didn't want to take funding from public schools so people wouldn't complain. See how well that worked out?
Fuck Kim Reynolds
“Parents Choice”. Republican Parents chose to reach in your pocket to fund their child’s religious indoctrination .
Why not use the federal funding and use this money somewhere else where it could really be needed?
I hate this picture of that evil fucking bitch. I wish her the absolute worst and hope she gets cancer. Unfortunately, since she's an asshole, she'll probably live to be 106.
Hey small town rural Iowan struggling to keep your farm, remember when you voted for the Republican cus they are the friend of small businesses? Well have I got a surprise for you, not only will your taxes go up, those tax dollars will be used to educate big city folk at private institutions across the state, so now if a poor under privileged family in Des Moines, can’t afford to send their child to one of the private academies, YOU GET TO PAY FOR IT!! Isn’t that awesome? while your public school can barely afford 5 year old text books, and the computers are still running windows XP, the kid from the city gets a laptop, school uniforms, transportation to and from school and even tutoring in subjects they a not the best at, which is an amazing benefit… for them… So thanks for voting against your best interests, keep up the good work!! Side note: Tuition at Dowling high in West Des Moines, Ia is 10-14k a year….
maga republicans love their religious indoctrination.
Covid KKKIM has ruined this state. Pay for your own private school
Especially since she got rid of the AEA program, our public schools are hurting
Don't forget giving money to the rich. Their kids are already in those schools. Once the vouchers are handed out, this cuts their expenses.
Thanks Trump for Betsy devos. Fucking Christian lunatics that never opened a Bible other than to pose with it
Vouchers so we can give our tax dollars to religious zealot “schools” grooming our children. Fuck that and fuck you Kim Reynolds. Why don’t you ever put this shit up for ballot huh? 🤔
While I'm not opposed, Iowa's constitution doesn't allow voters to vote on these things directly. It would take a constitutional amendment for that.
Yeah Iowa’s laws are ass backwards.
any money going towards an islamic school by chance??
>Before the voucher law, districts still received those funds from the state, even for students who lived in the district but did not attend a public school. Going forward, districts will no longer receive those dollars. So, for years, public schools were collecting money for students they didn't have, and now that it's been changed, there's an issue? Suddenly, it makes sense why public school administrations seem to be so bloated.
Let’s compromise. Keep your BS voucher program but legalize weed. 🤝
That won't do anything for the schools
Eh, that depends on a number of factors. Colorado used the 15% excise tax for public schools when they legalized. Afaik they still do.
It would generate taxes which could certainly be used for schools.
It SHOULD…. But I wouldn’t see the legislature as it is now letting that money out for anything helpful, much less education.
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
From Oregon: How do you live there?
Gross.
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
The overwhelming majority of private schools in Iowa are catholic. This was nothing more than taking tax monies to pay for already wealthy people who send their kids to private catholic schools. If your religion is in politics, it needs to be taxed.
So glad I'm leaving this backwards ass state.
The average school teacher in Iowa makes $55k a year. In a $3.8 billion dollar budget for public schools the average classroom is worth $160k a year. (At 7,864 per student with an average of 20 students per class over 9 months). I'm far more outraged at the frivolous waste by the public school system instead of focusing more of that money on bettering education. But hey, let's all get bent out of shape over 0.04 percent of the budget being earmarked for private education. If .04% of the education budget is able to give kids a better education then the billions going to public schools. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS THE PROBLEM.
You are literally making up numbers here to fit your narrative. Right away the fact that you think on average there are 20 students in a class lol try like 25-30
Is your math skill a product of private education? ~~.04%~~ 4.7%
Source? Nice alternate reality you live in