A Princeton University study of Iowa’s state-funded accounts for students in about half of Iowa’s private schools has found tuition rates for kindergarteners went up between 21% and 25% more than kindergarten tuition in Nebraska’s private schools.
Democrats say the study shows the taxpayer-funded accounts are a windfall for private schools. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights notes the state spent $180 million on the program this year. “Fifty-four percent of the vouchers so far have gone to 10 counties,” Konfrst said, “so how is this helping rural Iowa?”
Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, is an advocate of Iowa’s Educational Savings Accounts program. She said private school tuition increases are likely due to inflation. “I think those tuition increases would have occurred regardless of an Education Savings Account scholarship when you have over the course of the last three years cumulative inflation of about 20%, those costs impact non-public schools,” Sinclair said.
The Princeton study found tuition in dozens of Iowa private schools for students in first through 12th grades went up 10% to 16%. Sinclair said the study is “deeply flawed” because researchers were unable to get information about tuition rates for all of Iowa’s private K-12 schools. “The interesting thing about that study is that it does indicate that most of the non-public schools are still below the cost per pupil that public schools are spending on a student,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair and Konfrst made their comments during separate appearances on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. The 2024 Iowa legislature approved a 2.5% increase in general state funding for Iowa’s public schools, along with funding to raise starting salaries for public school teachers to $50,000 within two years.