Legislation making its way through the Iowa Senate would, among other things, establish the Student First Scholarship Program, an education savings account (ESA) program open to children attending a “public school identified for comprehensive support and improvement under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA].”
These accounts would pay for “tuition and fees at a nonpublic school, textbooks, fees or payments for educational therapies, including tutoring or cognitive skills training, curriculum fees and materials for a course of study for a specific subject matter or grade level, tuition or fees for nonpublic online education programs, tuition for vocational and life skills education approved by the department of education, education materials and services for pupils with disabilities, including the cost of paraprofessionals and assistants who are trained in accordance with state law, standardized test fees, advanced placement examinations or examinations related to postsecondary education admission or credentialing, qualified education expenses, and other expenses incurred by the parent or guardian that are directly related to the education of the pupil at a nonpublic school, including a nonpublic school accredited by an independent accrediting agency approved by the department of education.”
Leftover funds at the end of the year could be rolled over for use in subsequent school years. Roughly 10,000 Iowa students are attending public schools needing comprehensive support and improvement under ESSA and would be eligible for the program.
Copious empirical research on ESAs and their sister school choice programs, tax-credit scholarships and vouchers, finds these programs offer families improved access to high-quality schools that meet their children’s unique needs and circumstances.
Moreover, these programs improve access to schools that deliver quality education inexpensively. A Tax Education Foundation of Iowa fiscal analysis of an ESA program similar to Student First Scholarships, released in February 2019, found the amount of net savings to Iowa school districts under the program, on the low end, would be more than $29 million, or roughly $6,600 per ESA student.
Additionally, these programs benefit public school students and taxpayers by increasing competition, decreasing segregation, and improving civic values and practices.
Students at private schools are less likely than their public school peers to experience problems such as alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, fighting, gang activity, racial tension, theft, vandalism, and weapon-based threats. Furthermore, access to school choice programs may reduce potential for criminal behavior.
It is probably for these reasons, and also because teacher unions have repeatedly played politics with school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic in direct conflict with students’ best interests, that ESAs are more popular with parents than ever before.
Polling done by EdChoice released in December 2020 found 81 percent support for ESAs among the general public and 86 percent among current school parents, the highest level of support the program has received in the organization’s eight years of polling on the issue. This represents a 4-percentage point increase over 2019. These findings are mirrored in the American Federation for Children’s seventh-annual National School Choice Poll, released in January 2021, which saw 78 percent support for ESA programs.
The school a child attends should not be determined solely by his or her ZIP code. However, this is currently the case for most Iowa children. The Student First Scholarship Program would be the perfect complement to Iowa’s other school choice program, the School Tuition Organization Tax Credit, which was designed specifically for low-income families.
The goal of public education in the Hawkeye State today and in the years to come should be to allow all parents to choose which schools their children attend, require every school to compete for every student who walks through its doors, and make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school.
There has not been a time when providing these opportunities has been more urgent and more needed than right now. Legislators should recognize that and allow families as many options as possible to get their children the education they need and deserve.
For more information about education savings accounts and education choice, visit us here.