Education Wars

Shared Understanding Lost dept.

Oct 20, 2024

In your gut, you knew that it was a bad idea. Funds that taxpayers expect to be spent on public schools redirected to pay for private schools*. Implying that public schools weren’t worth defending.

Whether or not you have school-age children, you understand at the brain stem level that society needs to provide the finest publicly funded education system that it can. This is necessary in order to prepare it’s future leaders (whether blue- or white collar workers) to play their part in a nation founded on the principle of an equal opportunity for all.

Listening to Jennifer Berkshire, author of Education Wars, A Citizens Guide and Defense Manual, present her findings at an October 6 presentation at the downtown Des Moines Public Library, it was crystal clear that there are organized forces which certainly don’t see it that way.

While Iowans have, for the last 35 years been doing whatever it is we do, public school advocates now find ourselves as frogs in a kettle just now realizing we’re neck deep in steadily overheating water. Bitter results of a failure to make public education systems in Iowa a sustainable reality.

When you realize that voucher policies in Iowa moved forward in spite of the fact that considerably more than 50 percent (62% to be more exact) of Iowa taxpayers oppose them, it begins to register that we’re witnessing the death of our once shared understanding of the efficacy of public education.

Of course, you and I are “just citizens.” We serve as an example of a majority uncoordinated, unfocused, and largely unheard. No match for centralized, well-funded, focused messaging perfected over decades of quiet, persistent pressure on lawmakers. Increasingly beleaguered educators, victims of an unequal power dynamic between lawmakers and educators, are unwilling to risk and unable to generate meaningful community support on behalf of what are now becoming chronically underfunded Iowa public schools.

It’s a huge problem that we can’t begin to solve until we understand its structure. Listen as best selling Author Jennifer Berkshire discusses the Who, What, Why, Where and WTF of the Education Wars.

Additionally, take a moment to read online or download below Iowa Starting Line reporter Zachary Smith’s work digging out the dollars and senselessness brewing in the near future for the Iowa Voucher program. VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Private School Vouchers Cost Johnston, Urbandale Schools More Than $1 Million Each In 1st Year

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Meager year-to-year education budget increases engineered by the Republican dominated legislature had already placed Iowa public education in crisis. Now that the voucher system is up and running, the lights have come up and the full size and scope of the situation are now visible for those who care to look.

Good reporting by Smith lays out a scenario which many of us could’ve predicted at the outset:

“In year one of private school vouchers, the state’s Legislative Services Agency estimated it would cost $106.9 million. However, the program would need $128 million before the end of the 2023-2024 school year—weighing in at 20% over budget.

In year two, that same estimate had this school year’s voucher program (2024-2025) costing the state $132.3 million. But at the governor’s recommendation, the Iowa Legislature raised its allocation to $179.2 million—a staggering 35% over budget.”

At this rate of growth, the nightmare scenario could see badly depleted Iowa public schools limping along, while unaccountable public money disappears into the ‘private education maw’ never to be seen again.

Ahem…guess who gets to help fill in the gaps which may shortly begin appearing in the state general fund?

A Long Time Comin’

How does a state give away its vaunted public education system in exchange for the magic beans of private school/voucher thinking….?

**Education Wars Available locally at Beaverdale Books**

Jennifer Berkshire came to Iowa from her home in the Boston area to discuss her latest book which provides a revealing look at the form and substance of the multi-year assault on public schools here in Iowa and the United States.

Her extremely well researched findings are well worth the read for those who want to understand the players and strategies of this overnite transition—40 years in the making. Below are key moments from her conversations at the DM Public Library.

Segment #1 Berkshire briefly discusses the original mission of public education—and the broad agreement about what the mission and methods of public education should be.

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Segment #2 An examination of how efforts to undermine (or redefine the meaning of) public education gained steam among those wishing to bend the system to their needs. The discussion encompasses the role of public education and implications for downstream processes including child labor laws. Of course, questions of who should be educated and funding strategies for doing so are examined. Segment 2 ends with an important story highlighting citizens of a New Hampshire town, and how they rescued their public system through unified community action.

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Interesting and vital stuff to know especially as we could be facing the same sort of nightmare scenario playing out in states like Oklahoma, or Kansas (which dodged a bullet).

Supported by Iowa CCI, Berkshire spent October 5 and 6 in Des Moines, Ankeny and Waukee describing the results of her reporting and listening to the stories of Iowans’ public school experiences including almost universal dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.

As outlined in Zachary Smith’s reporting at Iowa Starting Line: the voucher program has already cost Des Moines (the largest system in the state) $millions of dollars in projected financial support from the State of Iowa. Also from his reporting:

“On stage with voucher advocate Betsy DeVos in July, Gov. Kim Reynolds said her Department of Education approved more than 30,000 Iowans to use private school vouchers. That’s an 11,000 student jump from last year and 10,000 more than the state estimated.

If 30,000 vouchers were approved and each voucher was worth $7,826, the floor of the private school voucher program’s cost is $235 million.That’s $55 million over budget at a minimum.

And during the 2025-2026 school year, eligibility requirements loosen. The income restrictions of the first two years of the program are set to disappear, increasing the pool of eligible students. The state-estimated year four total would cost $365 million annually, costing the state $1 billion in the program’s first four years.”

In my humble estimation, this amounts to state sponsored cruelty directed at Iowa families and to the public school employees (teachers, classified staff, administrators, counselors and community partners) on whom the vast majority of students still must rely.

Remember: this program is established at the time when only 41 of Iowa’s 99 counties have private schools and another 23 only have one private school, according to Smith’s reporting.

* Editor note: As an educator since 1980, I’ve been a teacher in public and private schools in Iowa, California and Montana. It is a truism that some students thrive in a public setting (like my own son), while others blossom in a private school setting (like my daughter). There is nothing inherently negative about either mode. What is deeply disingenuous is to have politicians sh*t-talking public schools while boosting a solution that they know the vast majority of students will have no opportunity to take advantage of.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) members standing with Education Wars author Heather McGee - Downtown Des Moines Library October 5, 2024.

If you would like to become an active part of the Iowa conversation on public education, Iowa CCI and issue coordinator Tim Glaza, pictured above second from the right) would like to hear from you.

(H/T to Zachary Smith and Iowa Starting Line for getting me off the couch and onto the keyboard)

Education Wars is available locally at Beaverdale Books

Education Wars

Shared Understanding Lost dept.

A Long Time Comin’

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