(RI Photo)
Statewide Iowa (RI) — State Auditor Rob Sand says it appears the State of Iowa spent nearly $260 million this past school year to cover tuition costs for K-12 students who would have attended a private school without the state subsidy.
Sand — a Democrat running for governor — and current Republican Governor Kim Reynolds have sparred over access to information about Iowa’s Education Savings Account program.
Sand says the report he released Wednesday is based on publicly-available data on spending and enrollment before and after the program launched three years ago. He says the data suggests only 21% of the students attended a private school rather than their local public school because of the tuition assistance.
Sand says there has been a 25% increase in the number of private schools in the past three years, while at the same time the number of private-school closures has increased 45%.
Sand says it appears just one of the new private schools that have opened went through the state accreditation process.
The Iowa Department of Education released a statement, saying it is baffling that the report does not pertain to an audit but appears instead to be a policy critique of the ESA program.
