Governor Kim Reynolds has proposed legislation to take money away from Ohio public schools and divert it to privately managed schools, vouchers for religious schools, charter schools, and home schooling. She is following in the footsteps of Betsy DeVos, who spent four years trying to eradicate public schools.
If you live in Iowa, contact your legislator and Governor Reynolds! Speak up for your public schools! Resist the privatization of public funds!
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds proposed SSB 1065, (now known as SF 159) which is being fast-tracked through the state Senate. The vote may be today. This “school choice” bill would:
- Provide up to $5,200 per student in “state scholarships” for parents to use for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses.
- Greatly expand charter schools in the state by allowing applicants to start a charter school by going straight to the state board, bypassing the school district. No longer would districts be the only decider for charter schools.
If you love your public schools, you need to drop what you are doing and get to work!
1. Call your state senators NOW and ask them to support public schools by OPPOSING Senate File 159, SSB 1065. Or say, “I oppose the school choice voucher/charter bill.” You can find your Senator and their phone number by going here. Click on their name for their phone number.
2. Click here and send an email in opposition to SSB 1065/SF 159 NOW.
3. Share this link with friends and family who live in the state.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/save-iowa-public-schools-oppose/
Don’t wait. Act now.
Carol Burris
Executive Director
Network for Public Education
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Provide up to $5,200 per student in “state scholarships” for parents to use for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses. ”
This is the end game- the eventual goal is to give every family a low-value voucher to purchase educational services.
It’ll be a massive cut in public education funding.
When they all recite “the money follows the child” insist they give you a number.
When people hired and/or elected ed reformers were they aware that they were getting a far Right ideological effort to gut public education funding and privatize the whole system?
I don’t think they were.
It’s really past time for ed reformers to start explaining how they went from “improving public schools” to “abolishing public education” over 20 years. This bait and switch they have pulled off is REALLY deceptive. Are we really paying thousands of these folks in government to dismantle and replace our public education system? Did anyone who votes for or hires them know they were signing on to this?
If the ed reform “movement” reaches their goal of universal vouchers is that the amount each child will get? 5k?
They will have pulled off a massive disinvestment in public education without every telling the public that’s what they were up to.
Liberal ed reformers are really supporting this? It will be absolutely devastating to lower income students. Liberal education reformers really want this as this legacy? Gutting education funding? Or were they just dumb enough to get played?
I read quite a few education reformers and it’s really interesting (and disturbing) how there is little or no mention of this huge national voucher push they’re running.
Why so quiet about the ed reform voucher juggernaught? Are they afraid it will be politically damaging?
They’re lobbying for vouchers in 25 states. It’s virtually the only work they have done since the pandemic hit. Why don’t they talk about it?
Shouldn’t the public be informed that the “education reform movement” consists almost completely of lobbying to promote funding for charter and private schools and does almost nothing else?
Sacred cows- the ed reformers rely on media and Democratic politicians’ silence about touchy subjects.
Chiara,
I write about the privatization movement constantly. The mainstream media is not interested in the subject. PBS even ran a show a few years ago called SCHOOL, promoting the ideas of Andrew Coulson, who believed in free market, for profit schooling. The show was subsidized by a group of far-right foundations.
KEY and most frustrating point
Interfaith Alliance spokesperson- “Once again Reynolds misused her office to promote one religion.” The quote was in reference to Reynolds’ news conference about lifting Covid restrictions on “spiritual and religious gatherings”. Reynolds invited a “leader of a conservative Christian group as the sole speaker from the public.”
It never stops, this assault.
2018 headline- “Is Iowa owned by the Koch Bros.?”
2017 headline, “Iowa GOP lawmakers get boost from Koch-funded group”.
The 2nd article mentions AFP and ALEC.
[…] bill, introduced as Senate Study Bill 1065 but now known as SF 159, according to the Network for Public Education, “is being fast-tracked through the state […]