An education bill that has created lots of buzz continues to be alive in the Iowa Senate.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green tells Raccoon Valley Radio that even though the Student First Scholarship bill in the House didn’t get out of the education committee and passed the first funnel week, it is still alive in the Senate. He says a bill has to get out of a committee in either the Senate or the House before the first funnel week, which is a benchmark that lawmakers use for bills that didn’t make it out of a committee and are effectively dead for the rest of the legislative session. Green points out that Senate File 159, which includes Student First Scholarships, made it out of the full Senate, meaning it is still a “live” bill until the second funnel week.

Green says he was disappointed that the bill didn’t make it through the House Education Committee and he hopes the Student First Scholarships doesn’t come down to politics.

“You know I’m kind of suspicious that maybe this is starting to be set up as a horse trading situation, where the House could be holding us back to get something else out of the Senate. I hope that’s not what’s happening. Maybe that’s just the reality of politics. My mind just doesn’t think that way, but maybe that’s potentially what’s happening behind the scenes. Again, I hope not because this is a Republican platform issue and it’s a common sense bill, and the governor’s bill (and), she loves it, and the Senate obviously loves it, and I think at the end of the day, the voters will love it.” 

The Student First Scholarships essentially allows parents of students that are attending 34 federally failing schools in Iowa to take state funding with them to another institution, such as a private school. Green remains steadfast on this topic.

“This conversation is not over with. It is very concerning to me because this bill is so narrow and so targeted at the bottom 34 school districts that continually struggle over, and over again. This bill just gives those kids, which for the most part are within the hardest hit of our society, gives them an option to break out of the cycle of poverty that many of those kids have. I’m just passionate about this.”

Greene County School District Superintendent Tim Christensen and Paton-Churdan School District Superintendent Kreg Lensch oppose Student First Scholarships.