‘School choice’ will damage public schools

To the Editor,

   In Jones County, we have exactly two private schools, neither of which will get a child beyond the primary grades. The Governor expects each and every one of you to currently supply $5,359 per qualifying kid for up to 10,000 students going to private school anywhere in the state. This money will bleed out of every public school system here in Jones County and across Iowa to the tune of over $53 million if every voucher is used! Private schools already have access to bus service and all sorts of administrative services to assist their students in whatever they need to help them make it through school, which is additional to this.

   Forty-one of Iowa’s 99 counties have no private school and 23 have just one, according to information released last year. So, your money will be going to places where there are populations large enough to currently support “private schools.” That will not expand choices here in Jones County. Beyond the schools we already have, we don’t have the population to make a separate school system work. It certainly will help pay for private schools in Polk County, Dubuque County, Scott County, Linn County, Black Hawk County, Woodbury County, and Sioux County though!

   I would recommend to those who understand the economics of this situation to let all their Republican representatives and senators know exactly how unpopular and expensive this is. This “plan” will only cost most of the counties in Iowa and will have no real net gain as far as “choice.” It will only damage further the public schools we depend on.

Steve Hanken

Monticello, Iowa