As the Iowa legislature reaches the midpoint in the 2019 session, one bill that survived funnel week would give state money to students with special needs who seek non-public education.

The current Senate bill narrows down on the original wording that would grant money equal to what the state pays per student in public schools for any child seeking non-public school education. This follows a similar school voucher bill that failed during last year’s legislative session. District 20 Republican Representative Ray Sorensen says he’s not sure if this bill will make it to the House, “I don’t know if there is much of an appetite for that over in the House, I know ESA’s (Education Savings Account) and school vouchers make a lot of people nervous. For me they don’t make sense in the sense that it can hurt our rural schools, it’s a little bit of a financial cliff for them to have to survive.”

Sorensen adds, it would be up to the House Education Committee to parse through the language of the Senate Bill, as he says he will be focused on the bills that made it through funnel week in the House and his committees of appropriations, state government, commerce, and veterans affairs. Hear more from Sorensen in today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program on air and online at raccoonvalleyradio.com.