Years ago when I first posted on the internet that Republicans were working to end public schools, a reader scoffed. Their goal was made a little more obvious this year in the Iowa legislature.
Republicans are backing a bill to send our school dollars out of state. This already happens on a limited scale. Some children are already allowed to "attend" two virtual schools by computer. These corporate "schools" --one with offices in Virginia and the other in Baltimore---get almost as much money from the Iowa taxpayer for each enrolled student as our hometown schools get. Since they have no campus nor any teacher in the room with the kids, these corporations are able to use a chunk of our money for their profit.
This awful idea was kept in check until now by Democrats in the Iowa State Senate. No more than one percent of the students in any school district can participate in this scheme. Republicans plan to remove any limits.
This means we could actually send all our tax money to Baltimore while all our kids stay away from school. All our school districts could close their buildings and pay unemployment to their teachers. This would be fine with Republicans lawmakers apparently. A year later when the parents realize the folly of this so-called school, will they be able to re-open a hometown school?
It won't happen, of course. Most Iowans have more sense than that. Some even know the poor results these virtual schools have shown. Why are Republican legislators so careless with Iowa tax dollars?
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