Bill would provide some private school vouchers

MT. PLEASANT - If passed by the Iowa House, students in failing school buildings could get money from the state of Iowa to help impoverished students attend a private school, using taxpayer dollars.

After recently passing through the Iowa Senate, educational savings accounts or ESA's would be available to students who attend failing schools and meet income requirements set by the bill. ESA's are funds available to those families who qualify for that aid in paying for private school expenses such as books, tuition and more.

There are about 10,000 students who qualify for these vouchers in 34 school buildings in the state, out of the 1,390 school buildings in the state.

To be considered a failing school a school building must be rated under 43 on the school index score. The index score measures scores such as: ACT scores of students, college preparedness scores, graduation rate, and English language progress. Failing schools comprise about 3½ percent of all Iowa school buildings.

In the Union area, only Highland Elementary School in Riverside meets that criteria.

Iowa Sen. Jeff Reichman (R-Mt. Pleasant) said the ESA's would allocate about $3 million of the Iowa budget equating to .0001% of the total budget allocation. Reichman voted yes on Senate File 159, the omnibus education bill that passed the Senate on Jan. 28.

Reichman was originally a no vote on the bill but was swayed after the bill was altered and 'honed” down to the form it is in now. Reichman said that much of the arguments and opposition to the bill is based on old information.

'There's lot's of talk about this, and I think that a lot of it's based on old information and when the bill first dropped and not the amendments that were made and the changes that were made to it,” Reichman said.

'Most failing schools are at the bottom of the list as far as the federal guidelines are for failing schools, at the same time they have a very high number of children in poverty. So that's what we really looked at, and that's what really swayed me on this,” he added.

Reichman added that he was really moved to put his support behind the bill when he realized that he would be helping impoverished children improve their education and status.

'We've gotten a lot of input on this bill, and my input is that I can sleep well at night knowing that I helped these poor children have an option to have a better education and possibly better themselves in life,” Reichman said.

Meanwhile, Iowa House Rep. Joe Mitchell (R- Mt. Pleasant) is opposed to the ESA's because they would pull funding from impoverished districts and punishing failing schools instead of addressing the heart of the issue. Mitchell has confirmed that he will vote no on the bill in it's current form.

'In general I've always been against vouchers, or ESA's, because I think we should try and make those public schools better, rather than punishing them if they are in an area that they might not have the best resources to work with,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell would instead like to see a targeted, comprehensive approach to address why these schools are failing at educating their students instead of taking money 'out of their pockets” and 'punishing” them.

'In general I'm not a fan of throwing money at problems, I don't think it generally works but funding certain initiatives that directly help,” Mitchell said.

'Ultimately, that money would be coming out of that districts pocket, so I think we should focus on improving those public schools that need help rather than punishing them,” he added.

Reichman said that the legislation might not completely solve the problem but at least they are taking the opportunity to help impoverished students better themselves in their education.

'We don't know if this is going to specifically solve the issue but it's doing the right thing, for the right people, for the right reason. It's giving these poor children a choice to possibly better themselves, and I think that's the greatest justification. We're here to look out for the people of Iowa and looking out for impoverished children, I don't think you can have a better cause than that,” Reichman said.