Teaching in an Iowa public school district for 40 years gave me many experiences that demonstrate the importance of strong schools for students, families, neighborhoods and communities. Iowans love our public schools because they are universally accessible, do not discriminate, and are accountable to us, the public. They are a source of pride, growth, and sustainability for our communities, especially in rural Iowa.
Gov. Kim Reynolds and her allies including state Rep. John Wills are waging a war on Iowa’s public education system. In a recent guest essay in the Register , Wills and Lisa Nelson from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, mislead us. They are trying to sell us an unpopular private voucher scheme that is going to bust our budget, further divide us, and lead to a decrease in student performance and achievement. We aren’t buying it because we know private school vouchers undermine our public schools and communities by taking public money intended for public schools and funneling it to private schools with no accountability. Dollars spent on educating our students are best spent where there is public oversight and transparency, which private schools don’t have. The public is with us on fully funded public education: According to a March 2023 Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, 62% of Iowans oppose Reynolds’ private voucher scheme and for good reasons.
Independent studies in Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., show that student performance and achievement decrease as voucher programs expand. Vouchers also bust budgets. Look at Arizona , where the voucher program is estimated to cost $1 billion per year. That’s 1,400% higher than what voucher proponents initially projected. In Iowa, our costs are expected to be over $200 million this year and will explode next year when there are no income limits on who can use vouchers.
Wills, Reynolds and their Statehouse allies want to defund, dismantle and privatize our public schools. It’s part of a national playbook being funded by billionaires like Betsy DeVos (Donald Trump’s former education secretary) and includes book-banning groups such as Moms for Liberty and a disturbing web of think tanks like ALEC. McKenzie Snow , Iowa’s director of education, is a leading private school voucher proponent.
To counter this, CCI Action members have launched a statewide Public School Strong campaign. We’re organizing people to attend school board meetings to fight for fully funded, honest and equitable public education open to everyone. All of us, including future generations, benefit from strong public schools because they’ve helped make our country far more equal, educated, and democratic. As educators Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider say in their new book "The Education Wars," “We have a strong economy, a better society, and a healthier democracy as a result of our free and universal approach to K-12 education.”
CCI Action members are bringing Berkshire to Iowa for a series of town hall meetings from Oct. 5 to 8 that will focus on why we need strong public schools and how our state legislators have been voting on this issue. To learn more, visit www.cciaction.org/events . And as we go to the polls Nov. 5, let’s remember that elections matter.
Cherie Mortice is the board president of Iowa CCI Action . She was born and raised in Des Moines, was a public school teacher for 40 years, and now lives on Des Moines’ east side.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Kim Reynolds wants to privatize education. Iowa supports public schools.
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