Dear editor,
Rural Iowans value public education. We know that regardless of race, religion, or zip code, all Iowa children deserve access to a quality education.
We write because the current Iowa education policies of diverting public dollars to private, often faith-based schools, while underfunding public schools, are hurting rural Iowans.
The school is the heartbeat of a rural community, and we have all seen what happens to small communities when the school closes. Over a period of years the towns become shadows of themselves and may eventually disappear.
Rather than passing legislation to preserve our rural communities, to give them “Freedom to Flourish,” Gov. Reynolds and the majority of Republican legislators are making no attempts to revitalize rural Iowa.
They are, in fact, hastening the demise of small, rural towns.
Iowa communities of any size dry up without healthy public schools. Local schools already feel the negative impact of Reynolds’ School Choice law. Public schools are the only schools in 43 of Iowa’s 99 counties. The state tax dollars residents of those counties pay are being shifted to counties in which there are private (usually faith-based) schools.
Instead of helping students in our rural public schools, and sustaining our rural communities, our tax dollars are being sent to more populated areas.
Private schools have no public oversight via elected school boards. Their records are not subject to open records scrutiny and their governance is not subject to open meetings laws, so taxpayers/citizens have no way to verify the education quality or school operations.
And, if they don’t use the State of Iowa for accreditation, Private schools don’t even need to hire licensed teachers.
An ongoing concern impacting rural Iowa is a shortage of teachers. Pay scales with this new system may be better in private schools than in smaller public schools; enabling Private schools to hire teachers away from smaller rural schools; making it more difficult for rural schools to hire the teachers needed to obtain state accreditation; and possibly moving the school one step closer to consolidation.
Access to public education, comparable across geographic and demographic lines, has long been a hallmark value of Iowa!
Gov Reynolds’ School Choice law hurts rural Iowa. It is a hindrance to small towns flourishing.
We believe rural Iowans share these concerns. We urge you to contact your legislators and tell them to support public education not just with words, but with the necessary finances.
Chris Henning of Cooper and John Brunow, on behalf of PRO Iowa 24 – a group of concerned rural Iowans with progressive values from Greene, Guthrie, Boone, Story and Dallas counties – PRO.Greene@Iowa24.org
