Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.
Iowa taxpayers provided about $104 million last school year directly to parents choosing to send their K-12 children to private schools.
The price tag for these Education Savings Accounts, commonly known as school vouchers, is expected to climb to $294 million this school year as more families become eligible. During the 2025-2026 school year, when income eligibility standards are removed, the cost is expected to reach $344 million, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency estimates.
I am not here to debate the merits of this program. Others can do that.
But there should be no room for debate over whether the State Auditor’s office can scrutinize the use of taxpayer money for education savings accounts—just as the auditor has the authority to examine the Iowa Judicial Branch’s mishandling of court fees paid by litigants, or the Iowa Department of Transportation’s lax inventory controls, or the University of Iowa’s 50-year lease of its utilities system, or any other use of state tax money.
Our president and his supporters across the nation have emphasized how important it is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse within federal programs. That mission is just as important in state government, too. It is immaterial which party’s initial comes after the state auditor’s name.
It’s not as if politicians who object to school vouchers recently came up with the idea that the government should be accountable for its spending decisions. In fact, this oversight has been part of Iowa government for nearly 170 years.
The voters of Iowa created the state auditor’s office when they adopted a new state constitution in 1857. The constitution laid out the office’s duties and powers—including that the auditor is responsible for ensuring that government officials use taxpayer money properly and that government is accountable to its citizens.
The office has presented itself as the taxpayers’ watchdog under the leadership of Republican auditors and Democrats alike. The auditor’s official seal has long featured a dog with its paws draped over a key next to a locked strongbox.
The authority of this office has been in the news since State Auditor Rob Sand released a report last week on the internal financial controls that are (or are not) in place at various state departments. His harshest criticism was directed at the education savings accounts.
“The bottom line is this,” Sand told reporters. “This administration won’t let us audit the controls on $100 million of your tax money going out to the voucher program. That program is likely to grow to over $300 million next year, and we cannot say that it has appropriate and reasonable controls for waste and abuse.”
Governor Kim Reynolds and officials at the Department of Education and Department of Revenue have balked at Sand’s requests for certain documents about the financial controls established to administer the school vouchers. Officials claim they could not provide the records because the auditor’s office did not request them in the right way.
Sand is not buying that explanation—nor should taxpayers.
Sand told reporters,
The statutory requirement and the mission of this office is to shine a light on how the state spends your money, hold government agencies and lawmakers accountable, and help prevent waste and abuse.
We can’t do that when the governor gives her approval to hiding documents and thumbing their nose at transparency for Iowans.
The governor defended her administrators’ responses. She said Sand’s opposition to the education savings accounts has rendered his audits biased.
“The auditor should be nonpartisan, non-biased,” Reynolds told reporters. But, she claimed, “He’s been obsessed with a program that he’s flat out against just to score political points. So he’s not a nonpartisan auditor. He’s a political actor. He’s using his office for political gain.”
Setting aside the questions about Sand’s political goals or motivations, let’s look at the transparency issues wrapped up in the discussion of the education savings accounts. Yes, Rob Sand is a Democrat. Yes, Kim Reynolds is a Republican. But transparency and citizen accountability should be nonpartisan.
It’s not partisan to ask whether the eligibility requirements for the education savings accounts are being properly followed. The requirements and procedures are either being followed—or they are not.
The Reynolds administration hired Odyssey, a New York company, to manage the applications and payments to voucher recipients. It’s not partisan to question whether Odyssey’s processes are meeting its contract obligations. The contract is either being followed—or it is not. And it is the state auditor’s job under the Iowa constitution to offer his analysis to state leaders and the public.
If the president’s DOGE, his government efficiency initiative, is analyzing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to see if it has abused its authority—authority laid out by bipartisan votes in Congress—then it is difficult to understand how the Iowa state auditor’s examination of the new education savings accounts is somehow improper because of Sand’s political views or party registration.
Republicans and Democrats in Iowa should have the same goal when it comes to the private school vouchers. The review by Sand’s staff will either (a) detect shortcomings in the administration of the program and suggest changes that are needed, or (b) find the program is properly managed.
The optics of opposing an unfettered examination by the state auditor is unbecoming of our political leaders.
Video of State Auditor Rob Sand’s press conference on February 18: