Iowa school voucher scam update: Private schools raising tuition up to 40%. Special ed services to public schools will have a 30 million dollar cut
- Thread starter Chishawk1425
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I don’t hate the basic concept of the voucher system. If the state government wants to provide money to families who otherwise couldn’t afford a private school, I’m fine with that.
What I’m not fine with is that 1) coming at the expense of public school funding and 2) the total lack of oversight regarding this for private schools.
And the fact that private schools can still refuse a student for any reason even if they can afford to pay tuition.
If they did what would happen to all the undesirable students?
Perhaps the Iowa GOP should have focused on that aspect instead of changing the entire funding paradigm and making sure that there is no way to even know if their moonshot is even coming close to fulfilling it's goal.
Support for an alternative school system would help and could be an exceptable landing spot. It's anecdotal, but I graduated with a guy that spent most of his time in high school working for various local companies in work study programs that the administration was able to get him credits as well as making money and working toward his inevitable career. There is no reason that couldn't be a more widely considered path, especially in Iowa.
In Des Moines and maybe CR, they kinda do.
They send troubled kids to the Alternative School.
Math isn’t his strong suit. Neither is anything else, other than being a mark.
Let me tell a tale about Indiana school funding and what voucher programs mean...
The first 7-10 years of my career in school finance we never really talked to our legislators about funding. There was typically a standard increase and then added money for growing schools and a soft landing for schools with declining enrollment. In the 2010-12 range the school choice lobbyists invaded the state house and that changed. Now my local legislator was asking me about funding. Asking me why they should send public schools money when most families wanted to go to private school but couldn't afford it (not true). Why private schools were much cheaper and that we should emulate them. We explained everything talked about in these threads (special ed, poverty, behavior issues, etc). We talked about the mission to educate all students, how this is what made America different than others, how public schools were engines of economic growth for the past 60 years.
However, they loved that sweet, sweet school choice campaign contributions and enacted what would eventually become the most wide ranging and permissive school voucher program in the country. Today, public schools in Indiana receive less per student than they did in 2010 when adjusted for inflation. Also in those intervening 13 years, the legislature has made it harder for schools to borrow money for building construction and maintenance, made it harder to run a funding referendum, mandated how we spend money, and increased the requirements for teaching licensing while taking away our ability to compensate teachers for getting that license.
While doing that, the legislature has also spent billions of dollars on vouchers, including doubling the amount on vouchers in the 2023-2025 budget from ~$480m in 2021-23 to $$1.1 billion. Over the last 10 years, the number of kids enrolled in privates schools have decreased. Most kids in private school receiving a voucher have never attended a public school (the basic tenet of the original school choice proposal was to allow kids in failing schools to attend private schools for a "better education"), and more than 50% come from families with a household income north of $100k/year. This wasn't a school choice bill, this was a giveaway to families already in private school. The idea that the state would "save" money when kids take a voucher is a farce because this is new money never before appropriated. Voucher spending is new spending.
All the things predicted to happen have occurred. At the end of the day, school choice has essentially zero to do with getting kids a better education and everything to do with diverting public education funds to private hands. It is an attack on one of the cornerstones of American society that has made us great. Quality public education available to all is what lifted multiple generations up economically. We are just pissing that advantage down the drain today.
That would be great for high school students, but my experience is with elementary. What do we do with undesirable young students? There are programs where schools can send especially difficult students, but there are other students that won't be accepted by private schools that are still difficult/disruptive while not being "bad" enough to qualify for the alternative programs.
Again, it may take a few years for the numpties to realize the fallout, financially and otherwise, to the State of Iowa from this program.
It's not if, but when.
It's not if, but when.
Out of curiosity, what political Party was in control in Indiana when the voucher program was created?
I bet I can guess.
We got a kindergarten boy a couple of years ago who was kicked out of his Catholic private school. Kicked out…at age 5!
That almost sounds like either the kid was an absolute terror or if it was related to the parents.
Doesn't surprise me. I have taught many kindergartners that I'm sure would have been asked to leave a private school.
Or, it’s not true and he’s just repeating an embellished story because he wants to believe it.
The entire basis of the school choice movement is an embellished story that people want to believe.
We had a kid in my daughter's kindergarten whose behavior was so aggressive he had to be placed in an independent classroom. Literally they had to have a one to one teacher and separate classroom for the child.
He has some behavior issues but he’s not been sent home a single day in 3 years with us. Just goes to show the private schools can simply move out or not accept undesirables, just like we’ve said.
Oh yes...then double down. Just an FYI...they don't "disappear".
Which private schools choose not to deal with, because they don’t have to.
Agreed. And the child got - at taxpayer expense - the environment needed. A private school just boots him out. After they have the taxpayer $$, of course.
Depends on the issues involved. In most cases, a large part of the reason you include kids with disabilities in the normal classroom is that so they (and the rest of the class) learned the valuable social skills involved that they’ll need to interact with people outside school. Not to mention very few schools would have the resources needed to have many 1-1 situations.
Sadly not holding my breath on Reynolds giving that money to public schools.
I wonder how IDEA would apply to putting SPED students in separate schools.
I fully admit I don't have answers, but I would love to see some more dynamic options for the higher achievers at all levels and that could include high schoolers spending time at this hypothetical alt-elemenary as well as the "alternative" students coming together for entry level arts, pe or home ec type classes.
This is an area that I think small schools could really set a tone and try out different models, but there would have to be a belief in public ed from the statehouse.
Evidence suggests voucher schools push out struggling students
Do private schools push out students who receive state-funded tuition vouchers when they struggle academically? A newly published research study provides evidence that they do. On the other hand, t…
inschoolmatters.wordpress.com
My favorite line: Pushout can also be costly to students and their families. State voucher funding stops when the student leaves, but the schools may bill families for tuition for the month or even the entire semester
So it IS about the money and not the education...
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I understand what you are saying and agree we need to work on alternatives, but at the same time some laws restrict our options. We certainly shouldn't go back to the days when SPED kids were taught behind closed doors and didn't interact with the "normal" students, but at the same time I don't think mainstreaming is necessarily the answer either.
How? Smaller schools are typically starved for resources to begin with.
That's where the belief and support from the state comes in. If Iowa wanted to be a leader in education again, it could be. It won't happen, but it could.
This same story has happened time after time in this country whenever a state has chosen to use public funds (vouchers) to subsidize private schools. This doesn't benefit hardly anyone but the folks who are already sending their kids to private schools, it's a sham and the same story will unfold in Iowa as well. When the majority of the public finally come to realize they and their public school systems have been screwed over through these voucher systems, the damage is profound and the profiteers have moved on to the next carcass to pick away at.
My mother, a long time Reynolds supporter, has changed her tune because of this issue alone. I think the GOP is going to have a much rougher go in Iowa than they may have imagined because of this school voucher system. Small town folks in Iowa take great pride in their local school systems, undermining them will have consequences down the road.
