The leadership change in Iowa’s Department of Education came last year. Four months after Reynolds appointed director Chad Aldis, Reynolds announced Aldis resigned “for family reasons.” She then quickly appointed McKenzie Snow, the deputy director of the Virginia Department of Education (and an advocate of state-funded private school scholarships) to be the Director for Iowa.
Then Iowa’s Students First Act (SFA) providing state tax dollars for Private Education was signed into law Jan. 23, 2023. This act passed quickly. The cost is estimated to be $916 million during the first four years. (Within a few weeks, I viewed four “portable classrooms” being delivered to a Private school. Did this school assume passage of the act?)
Additionally, a Northwest Iowa newspaper on Dec 9 received an email from Reynolds in which she stated, “AEAs across the state will undergo a “comprehensive review,” and looked at more closely aligning AEAs with the Department of Education. Check HSB542 for details.
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Then there was further information provided from The Journal on Jan. 4, indicating probable cuts in Higher Education are being considered. Pat Grassley mentioned Tuition Freeze for the State’s Universitys, yet “It has been years since the Legislure approved a full funding…(Regents) watched their general education funding reliance flip from 77% state support in 1981 to 31% this year. Meanwhile, reliance of tuition income ballooned to 64% from 21% in 1981.”
If the intent of this massive deflection of money is to fully endorse Private Education and crush Iowa’s Public Education…this’ll do it. Timothy Getty, Hinton, Iowa
This article was originally published by a siouxcityjournal.com . Read the Original article here. .