Public School of Hard Knocks

Untested Choices Co-Opt Public Education

Photo by Vikram Singh on Unsplash

I must need more schooling. One post graduate degree is inadequate to understand what’s happening to K-12 education in Iowa today.

Living out here in the hinterlands of west-central Iowa, I keep reading and hearing about all the fabulous parental school choices. These choices are light years beyond open enrollment, a decades-old school choice for parents.

In addition to Iowa’s 328 local public schools, there’s a head-spinning number of K-12 options today with one thing in common: they’re all funded by taxpayers like me.

In 2023, Governor Kim Reynolds introduced Iowans to a new world of private school vouchers when she forced Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) on our spineless state legislature. For the first time, Iowa students could use public tax funds to attend their choice of private school. However, 41 Iowa counties have no private schools. Their protests against funding school choices that their students were unable to access were ignored.

Boone County does have two private, religious elementary schools in Boone, 18 miles from where I live. But transporting children from the western reaches of the county never has been a popular choice.

Earlier this month, I read about an entirely new school in Greene County, about 40 minutes from where I live: a private “faith-based” K-3 school in Jefferson, called Foundations Elementary School. It held an open house earlier this week, and I decided to take a look.

Jefferson is a town of 4,350. I’ve heard great things about its public schools. In fact, three of my great nieces, and one great-nephew graduated there.

The unassuming one-story remodeled school building is located on the grounds of Abundant Life Ministries. When it opens this fall, Foundations Elementary will operate according to a hybrid learning model. Its Kindergarten and 1st grade will attend two days per week, and the 2nd and 3rd graders will attend two other days of the week. All grades will attend together one day per week. Two days per week will be spent in at-home learning with an instructional plan. Students will take “the same standardized tests and assessments that public schools are utilizing”.

According to its promotional information, Abundant Life Ministries identified a “gap” in Greene County: no private schools. Apparently, it also identified the opportunity to take advantage of ESAs, funded by Iowans’ taxes: the private school tuition will be $8,000 per pupil per year, the same as Iowa’s school vouchers.

As I watched several young families arrive at the open house, I wondered:

· Is there a population boom in Jefferson?

· If you build it, will they come?

· “Why would I fund this school with my tax dollars?”

Private Schools Expand

Jefferson isn’t an isolated example. My great nephews who live in Sioux City attend public schools. But their parents now have a new choice: Siouxland Christian has added an $11 million secondary school, based on a 250% enrollment growth since 2020.

Is there a population boom in Sioux City? No? It’s no coincidence – the enrollment growth aligns with the creation of the voucher program.

Just 46 miles north of Sioux City, St. Mary’s Schools (K-12) in Remsen, population 1,890, is undergoing a $7 million renovation/expansion.

In western Iowa, Carroll Kuemper Catholic is growing by leaps and bounds, with plans for a $28.5 million expansion. Is Carroll, Iowa’s population of 10,000, rapidly growing? No. But its private school enrollment is.

Statewide, accredited private schools grew more than 6% in the 2025-26 school year. Statewide public school enrollment dropped 1.53% last year.

Unchartered Territory

All these choices make my head explode! But there’s more. In 2021 Iowa had two charter schools. Last year, there were 19. Charter schools are public, and don’t charge tuition. Charters can’t selectively deny students; but they do not and cannot take every child. They’re accountable to state educational standards, but they can ask their governing board to waive certain state requirements.

Gov. Reynolds gave the new charters a jumpstart with almost $4 million through a new grant program, the Iowa Charter Start-up and Expansion Grant program, created with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

This explosion of charter schools isn’t likely to benefit a shrinking rural demographic. Now I see Governor Reynolds has proposed legislation to increase the per pupil charter state funding equal to the amount of public and private schools: $8,000 per pupil.

The legislation (HF 2699 and SF 2406) would allow charter school students access to public school extracurricular activities, including drivers ed. (Public schools may charge a fee.) Charters also would receive extra per-student funding to help cover teacher salaries, the same way public schools do.

But that’s not all. In 2024 the Iowa Legislature rolled over and approved the Governor’s cuts to the Area Educational Agency, which serves students with learning and physical disabilities and helps provide professional teacher development. Now our Governor wants to take money from the reduced AEA budget to provide these services to charter schools.

Publicly Funded; Privately Managed

I understand the need for a few public charter schools to assist with dropout recovery or offer an alternative learning environment. But what’s behind this huge influx of charter schools in Iowa? Just follow the money.

Iowa law allows public charter schools to be operated by a “founding group” which can be an out-of-state for-profit management group. To date, most of Iowa’s charters are operated by out-of-state for-profit companies. For instance:

· The Horizon Science Academy (Pre-K-6) in Des Moines and in Davenport are operated by ConceptSchools, which manages more than 40 nationwide charters focusing on STEM.

· Des Moines Prep (8-9) in the East Village is operated by Opportunity Education, an Omaha-based nonprofit launched by Joe Ricketts, whose family owns the Chicago Cubs. (Nebraska law doesn’t allow public charter schools.) Cedar Rapids Prep (6-9) opened last fall; Davenport Prep (6-9) opens this fall.

· Great Oaks High School & Career Center in Des Moines is managed by Oakmont Education, an Ohio-based for-profit education management company.

· Florida-based CIVICA Network Opportunity Education and Scholarship Prep (Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, K-1 grade.)

Why would these out of state companies flock to Iowa? It seems an obvious strategy to allow private business access to a new public revenue stream. They charge the schools a management fee, tapping into public taxpayer dollars, and operate as a quasi-for-profit.

When Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a fiscal 2026 $60 million budget increase for charter schools, she said Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds told her that “increasing charter schools has improved public education and parental involvement”.

I’d say she needs to prove it to Iowans.

Parental Choice is Trojan Horse

Not long after ESAs were signed into law, private schools began posting regular tuition hikes. As money is siphoned from public schools, Iowans also are paying Odyssey, a New York-based accounting firm, to administer the voucher program. All the while, as these bright, shiny school choices are promoted, trust in Iowa’s public schools is eroding.

Photo by Tayla Kohler on Unsplash

The reality is that parental choice is the brainchild of Project 2025. Unlike public schools, private schools are free to deny enrollment to students who are disabled, require English as a second language, or are LGBTQ. They can exercise the choice to discriminate, and they’re not fiscally or academically accountable to taxpayers.

I have nothing against private K-12 schools. However, in Iowa, most of them are religiously-affiliated. I do believe the First Amendment of our Constitution requires separation of church and state, and it’s a violation to fund a private school choice with public funds. If parents want to ground their children in faith, they can take them to church, send them to Sunday School, and pray with them at home. It’s not the role of government-funded education to school them in their religion.

Charter schools may have a place. However, considering the huge amount of taxpayer funding at stake, I suspect the majority of out of state charters that rushed here after Reynolds signed the law in 2021 aim to siphon public money from public institutions and divert it to the pockets of interest groups, all under the guise of “parental choice”.

At least a quarter of charter schools fail within five years. If so, will Iowa have failed their students? How will Iowa evaluate this taxpayer-funded experiment called parental choice? Private schools require little or no tracking of student achievement. Iowa’s Auditor is being hamstrung by Gov. Reynolds and the Republican majority from holding the voucher program accountable to Iowa taxpayers. What would happen to the private school building boom if Iowa’s cash cow ESA program dries up?

Public Schools’ Brick-and-Mortar

The Governor and our legislature have been underfunding public schools, based on the rate of inflation, for over a decade. The recent 2% increase in state supplemental aid is, in essence, a cut. Not unexpectedly, considering the state’s aim to increase private and charter school enrollment, combined with Iowa’s declining birth rate, public school enrollment is dropping.

An estimated 200 public schools in Iowa are projecting to use a budget guarantee for the 2026-27 school year, due to declining enrollment and a 2% state aid increase. Legislators have agreed to absorb the shortfall this year, avoiding an increase in local property taxes. What will happen in the future?

It’s not just a small school dilemma. Case in point: The Boone High School is cutting its century-old grades 7-12 orchestra program, along with several positions totaling a $665,000 reduction.

Governor Reynolds’s mantra is “we have to fund students, not systems.” However, unless parents are provided the transparency and accountability to evaluate their choices, it’s meaningless.

Iowans don’t like what is happening to public schools. A statewide campaign called Public School Strong is calling for school board resolutions to fully fund public schools and phase out the voucher program.

As a former school board member, I don’t understand why legislators are allowing this to happen. What will be the impact of shortchanging public school students and teachers? When test scores dip, will we hear, “Well, public schools are failing, so we might as well just privatize education”?

What’s going on in Iowa seems like an effort to skim the cream off the top of our educational system, and then leave students in the hinterlands and urban centers to learn in the public school of hard knocks.

Public schools must educate all students, and our system of public education helped create a strong middle class. In turn, educated citizens have formed the bedrock of our democratic republic. As we celebrate America’s 250 years of democracy, we know public schools have played a pivotal role since the first Iowans arrived here in covered wagons. One of their first steps was building a public school.

The defining purpose of public education is promoting equality and opportunity. It’s why we fund public schools with our tax dollars. Public schools are the brick and mortar binding our communities together and bridging our divides. The overriding goal of public education is advancing the common good – not catering to individual choices that diminish the whole.

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