State Auditor talks P.I.E and school vouchers

WASHINGTON — Residents from throughout Washington County gathered in Central Park Thursday afternoon to hear more from State Auditor Rob Sand on the P.I.E. Program and how he intends to maintain appropriate oversights considering the new school voucher system.

After making an effort to shake hands with all those in attendance, Sand gave an overall statement on how the auditor’s office will continue to act as the taxpayers’ “watchdog,” with their new P.I.E (Public Innovations & Efficiencies) Program.

“I want to give credit to your local entities that participated In the program in 2022,” Sand said and asked individuals from Brighton and Riverside to raise their hands. “…Congratulations on participating in the program.”

According to Sand, this pun-ridden program came to fruition through his passion for creating better methods for public efficiency promotions.

“The heart of the P.I.E. Program is about a nine-page checklist. We call it the P.I.E. Chart,” Sand explained. “It's just basic things that cities, counties and school districts can do to save money. We ask them to check yes for they’re doing and no for what they’re not.”

The answers to this checklist are then made available to the public.

The P.I.E. Chart includes information on saving money through categories such as energy efficiency, operational efficiencies, innovation, utilities, and other topics.

According to Sand, participants in the program become eligible to win a P.I.E. Award in the auditors’ P.I.E. Contest.

“We give out awards for the best performing cities and counties and school districts of every district of every size,” Sand explained.

This award comes with a certificate for the entities to show off to their communities along with literal pies to celebrate their hard work.

“Later this year, not too far in the future, when it is kind of pie season, I’ll travel the state and bring actual pie to cities and counties and school district to celebrate if they are doing a job of saving money,” Sand said.

“Those are some of the toughest days in the office,” he said with a chuckle. “I might have to eat five slices of pie in a single day, but if someone has to do it on the public’s behalf, I’ll bite the bullet.”

The P.I.E. Program also includes “P.I.E. Recipes” which are an opportunity for the auditor’s office to collect ideas from around the state for ways local government can save money. Some of these ideas can then be added to the P.I.E. Chart which Sand says will give other entities more good ideas to put into practice.

According to Sand, Iowa is the first state to implement this kind of program Mississippi has already copied the idea.

“It is also getting copied in Maryland, Tennessee, Oregon, and Washington,” he said.

In addition to sharing about this pun-filled public efficiency promotion program, Sand gave the opportunity for questions before continuing his way to Iowa City as part of his 99-County Tour.

“When will we get real numbers for what the tuition voucher program costs us,” Washington County Democrats Chair Sandra Johnson asked and stated a discussion about the topic.

Sand’s immediate answer was that he did not know when they would know the cost. He then explained further.

“The people who talk about it they say, ‘school choice,’ but you don't actually get to just sign up and go to whichever school you want to,” Sand said. “So, we can't Assess the real cost just by looking at the number of students who signed up.”

Sand further elaborated stated that the ability for private schools to reject potential students makes it difficult for the auditor’s office to know the actual cost until the schools have chosen which students will attend.

While attendees expressed many concerns about the voucher program that fell outside Sand’s area of expertise, he did comment on the opportunity for misspending funds with the structure of this bill.

“This program is going to effectively throw hundreds of millions of dollars every year into a black hole with these private schools, and we're going to have almost no ability to know how they're spending it,” Sand said.

He outlined an issue with accountability stating that “the program has qualified educational expenses and that the money has to be spent on those, and if you don’t spend it on those, you misspend it, you could get kicked out of the program, or you could even get charged with a crime.”

“Everything I just said only applies to parents,” Sand said. “If you’re a private school, you get the vast majority of this money, because the program actually requires that the $7,500 that's coming out of the public school be first used to pay tuition.”

According to Sand, once the tuition is paid, there is only one thing that private schools cannot do with that money.

“They can’t pay a rebate to a parent whose kid is enrolled,” Sand explained. “…If they want to wine and dine prospective parents with your tax dollars, offer a steak meal and some fancy wine to anyone who’s considering sending their kids to the private school and they want to pay for that with your tax dollars, that would be legal.”

Another component of concern for the auditor comes from the lack of obligation for these schools to submit an annual audit.

“How are we going to find out if money is misspent without those tools?” he asked.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com