Governor Kim Reynolds laid out her proposal for school vouchers and lawmakers are looking to draft legislation to address the topic.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says the governor’s proposal takes 70-percent of the per pupil state allocated funding, roughly $5,200, would follow a low to middle income child to either a private school or tutoring. The remaining 30-percent, or about $2,000, would go back to a small or rural school district. Green shares his thoughts on additional state funding helping smaller school districts.

“This could be a windfall for rural districts because there are so many more private school options in the urban areas. It’s the urban areas that are facing so many more problems than the rural schools. Pretty much any of the controversial things that keep coming up in our topic about education isn’t coming from rural schools, rural schools are doing their jobs. A lot of these cases are coming out of Des Moines Public (Schools) and urban schools.”      

However, Greene County School District Superintendent Tim Christensen disagrees and doesn’t believe that public, taxpayer money should be used to fund private schools.

“In particular if you’re going to go down that path, everybody needs to have the same playing field,  and that doesn’t not exist. Private schools do not have to meet the same requirements as public schools. And I really struggle with, to me, taking 30-percent and giving it back to the small schools is a way to hopefully appease the rural areas in the state to be supportive of this plan and I’m not supportive of it.”   

The Senate bill that stalled in the House for school vouchers last year targeted students that attended federally failing public schools would receive a voucher or an education savings account and utilize funds for another public school or a private institution.