Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com
One of our first warnings for children is, “Don’t take candy from strangers.” Iowans need to remember that lesson when politicians offer their version of candy. It seems so sweet, but bitter truth lurks behind.
When Governor Kim Reynolds tells us what she is going to do, Iowans should believe her. She’s shown she’s not shy about getting her way. We’re a one-party state with no checks or balances, and that one party just received another mandate from voters. Legislators may tinker around the edges, but the governor gets what she wants, unless the public protest demonstrates the mandate was a mirage.
Reynolds and the legislature have already cut state income taxes, and in January Iowa will have a flat income tax rate of 3.8 percent. The governor’s goal is to eliminate the individual state income tax completely by 2027. For this coming year, she’s promised to slash property taxes.
Doesn’t it sound sweet?
It does, until the sugar rush wears off and there’s a crash. The latest state revenue estimates show Iowa will collect $1 billion less in income tax revenue over the next 24 months. I can hear the cheers from those pretending to crave small government. But usually, their love for small government lasts until a storm hits and they look for big government help.
No doubt, cutting property taxes is popular. Every time I get my bill I groan. But before we start gobbling “candy,” remember that public schools primarily depend on property taxes for funding, and so do cities and counties. Reynolds hasn’t said how she’ll fund schools and other essential local services when property tax revenues evaporate like income tax revenue.
As Paul Harvey would say, “That’s the rest of the story.” But Reynolds has a history of throwing out candy leaving Iowa with a bitter taste. Here are some examples.
Remember when she sold private school vouchers as “parental choice.” But it wasn’t about parental choice at all. It was about giving religious and for-profit schools choice.
Private schools can pick and choose which kids to accept, even if the kid had the $7,826 state voucher in hand. Private schools could also choose to raise tuition after receiving state funding. The average increase was $1,280 for kindergarten and $830 for higher grades. Most of all, vouchers allowed unaccountable choice on how to spend public money for private gain.
This candy was expensive. The school voucher program (officially known as Education Savings Accounts) has been over budget since the beginning. For the current academic year, at least 30,000 voucher requests were approved. If all of those students enrolled at private schools, the price tag would be at least $235 million—a whopping $55 million over budget. Many school districts also lost state funding after students left public schools for private ones.
Reynolds dangled “candy” in front of cash-craving superintendents by promising to give school districts more control over Area Education Agency (AEA) funds in a “fee for service model.” AEA services were gutted, and schools, and what’s left of the AEA are still wondering how essential student services will be delivered. Five hundred AEA employees left. We still don’t know the full impact of this sugar high, but it won’t be the same.
Here’s a personal example. My grandson has been in speech therapy since he started public school. He improved because of dedicated AEA speech and language pathologists. This year, he didn’t have an AEA person. He was alone in a room and speech was over Zoom. Thankfully, he had improved enough so he could exit speech.
No, the service isn’t the same.
There’s an old dental warning: “Candy is dandy, until it rots your teeth.” Almost every public school district name includes the word “community.” Let’s not let Iowa schools rot from Kim Reynolds’ candy.
Top photo of assorted chocolate candies is by DesignMarjolein, available via Shutterstock.