Reynolds’ voucher program will cost Iowa taxpayers over $200 million in year two

Over 30,000 applications were approved for the second year of Iowa’s taxpayer-funded private school tuition vouchers, according to Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that more than 30,000 applications were approved for the second year of her taxpayer-funded private school tuition program.

Reynolds provided the update while sharing the stage with former US Education Secretary and prolific voucher advocate Betsy DeVos during Friday’s 2024 Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines.

The governor did not provide a specific number of approved applications; however, just 30,000 applications would total $234,780,000 in taxpayer dollars for private school tuition in year two of the program. 

The Iowa Legislature allocated nearly $180,000,000 to vouchers—an unlimited line item in the state budget—for the 2024-25 school year, and this projection is more than $50 million higher than that amount.

The nine-figure estimate of voucher costs is based on the 2024-25 school year funding amount of $7,826 per voucher recipient multiplied by 30,000 applications. Iowa provided 16,757 vouchers at a cost of nearly $128 million in the 2023-24 school year.

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa received 35,417 voucher applications this school year, and more are being vetted. 

In the program’s second year, the restriction on who qualifies for a voucher was raised to 400% of the federal poverty rate, and this limit will be phased out entirely in the 2025-26 school year.

During her time in office, Reynolds pushed for private school vouchers and even endorsed primary opponents of Iowa House Republicans who opposed her plans during the 2022 Republican primaries. 

In the 2023 legislative session, Reynolds was finally able to pass her most expensive voucher proposal to date. On Friday, she credited the coronavirus pandemic for giving her the political ammunition to get it over the hump. 

“COVID, honestly, served it up on a silver platter for us,” she said. “It was a defining moment; it really gave parents a proper seat to see what was happening in their classrooms.”