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Home / Opinion / Guest Columnists
Jun. 23, 2024 4:00 am
Disclaimers: I am not running for office. I am not a politician. I am politically independent. I have not been paid in any way to write this piece.
Iowa is the state in which I was raised and educated and have looked at from afar and within with admiration and pride. I love this state with its many fair-minded and hardworking people. Now, I am deeply concerned.
It took Iowa Kim Reynolds three years to convince Republican legislators to support her educational savings account (voucher) initiative that is now the law of our land. I wonder if the governor and the others who leapt so quickly to embrace her plan have considered the implications of destroying a once outstanding educational system.
I am not criticizing private schools; many provide high quality education. However, there is no question that religious schools should be off the board for inclusion in a taxpayer-supported program. Using school vouchers to pay for education in church-affiliated schools is a direct violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. That clause guarantees the separation of church from state. The version of vouchers applied in Iowa pays no attention to this fundamental tenet of law. Why the concern?
It is common practice for elementary students in Catholic schools to attend mandatory mass once each week; once per month is the norm for high school students. Compulsory attendance in those religious services opens the door to proselytizing, which is forbidden in public schools. I did an online search of Catholic schools in Iowa and found that enrolling students who are members of a parish and/or profess the Catholic religion pay considerably less in tuition than non-Catholics.
Beyond violation of the First Amendment, I pose three questions. The first: How will students be educated? The emphasis of the Iowa voucher program is where students attend school. Other than banning books, the sudden approval of the “Science of Reading” initiative, and straight jacketing the teaching of U.S. history and Western civilization, I’ve seen nothing about how students will be educated in private schools that will make a positive difference in student learning outcomes.
The crucible of student learning is the classroom, and the vehicle that engenders student learning is instruction. How does moving students to private schools improve education across the state? If there are instructional miracles within those private school walls, please share the secrets. We need the best teaching possible in every school, and sharing best practices across all boundaries could enhance the effort. Each child gets one trip through the system. We must ensure it is as good as it can be right now.
The second question: With whom will students be educated? I wonder about the demographic composition of student populations in most of Iowa’s private schools. We live in a diverse world. Experiences in diverse classrooms help prepare young people to thrive and contribute to that real world. Sadly, and alarmingly, watching the Iowa voucher program unfold is reminiscent of schooling in the South during the 1950s and 60s. After the U.S. Supreme Court Brown decisions in 1954 and 1955 ordered that all public-school doors be open to all students regardless of color, legislators in some states diverted public funds to private schools where Black students were denied enrollment. Some school districts fought integration for years. Some continue to use voucher programs to do so. Is that going to be our guiding North Star?
Further segregation is a real possibility, and there is precedent. The voucher program introduced in Iowa is very similar to the one implemented in Indiana in 2011. Private schools in that state (the state with the highest Ku Klux Klan membership in the 1920s-40s) have experienced a significant decline in the enrollment of Black students since the voucher program’s inception 13 years ago. It is easy to see how this happens. As the income restrictions are lifted, and private school tuitions increase, the poor children of our state, who are often children of color, will be less likely to attend a private school. Could that be intentional … even today?
Former Little Rock school superintendent Baker Kurrus stated that for most kids in underfunded rural and inner-city schools, “a school voucher might as well be a coupon for half off at Tiffany’s.” He was speaking about the new voucher program recently introduced by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders as she stood on the steps of an Arkansas private school accompanied by a half-dozen handsomely dressed little white boys wearing neckties. We’ve seen this picture all too often before. Do we want to see it again?
The third question: How will private schools be held accountable for their use of public funds? If reliable and timely student performance data are readily available to the public, we’ll be able to watch the Iowa story unfold in real time. That is a very large “if.” In recent months, the responses to my requests for ESA and demographic data from some private schools were disappointing and, in some cases, repeatedly ignored. This is not the transparency I was expecting. It is not the transparency that taxpayers need and deserve.
It’s still possible to reverse course. Although it is certainly out of fashion today, it’s OK for the governor to say, “I was wrong.” Given the present anti-academic political climate and the tendency to plow forward regardless of the damage due to hasty and ill-informed decision-making, that is highly unlikely.
I fear that all the governor’s horses and all the governor’s men will not be able to put Iowa public education back together again. And that is no fairy tale.
Dave Markward is a former Cedar Rapids Community Schools Superintendent and author of “From Dubuque to Selma: My Journey to Understand Racism in America.”
Opinion content represents the viewpoint of the author or The Gazette editorial board. You can join the conversation by submitting a letter to the editor or guest column or by suggesting a topic for an editorial to editorial@thegazette.com
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