How former-lobbyist Bill Gustoff helped lay the groundwork for Iowa’s vouchers system

State Rep. Bill Gustoff, a Republican who represents part of the eastern Des Moines metro, spent years lobbying and advocating for private school vouchers. 

Up until his election to the Iowa House in 2022, Gustoff worked as a lobbyist for Homeschool Iowa, a nonprofit organization that works with homeschooling families and “to promote and protect home education in our state.”

He was their lobbyist from 2010-2014 and then again from 2021-2022, advocating for bills in the Iowa legislature that would prop up private schools and homeschooling.  

For years, Gustoff lobbied specifically for the private school voucher bill that was eventually passed in 2023.

He frequently recorded videos for Homeschool Iowa, providing updates on legislation on the organization’s YouTube channel.

“Our governor and the legislature have taken a strong stand this year to support parents and students on school choice and they’re going to take a lot of heat for that in certain sectors so we’re going to ask you to engage them, to encourage them,” Gustoff said in a video posted in February 2022.

“We’re called in scripture to pray for those in authority and we’re going to ask you not only to pray for them but to engage and encourage them and thank them for their services and encourage those who don’t support us to do so,” he continued.

When he was in office in January 2023, Gustoff voted for the voucher bill.

Gustoff was completely absent from the vote on the final bill restructuring Area Education Agencies (AEAs), which help children with disabilities to get the accommodations and care they need in order to get an education (he missed 94 votes overall in his first term, above the average). He did vote in favor of earlier versions of it, though.

In addition to lobbying for private schools and homeschooling, Gustoff also lobbied for tax breaks for private instruction organizations and for the anti-abortion amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would have explicitly said Iowans don’t have a right to abortion under the state constitution.

In office, Gustoff voted for the near-total abortion ban, which prohibits abortion before most people know they’re pregnant. He voted for a bill to define life beginning at conception, too, which would have endangered IVF.

Loosening Gun Laws, Preventing Parental Accountability for Mass Shootings

Gustoff has supported multiple bills expanding access to and challenging restrictions on guns—including voting for the bill that allows teachers to carry guns while they’re in school.

Before he was in office, though, he lobbied against a number of restrictions.

In 2021, Gustoff registered to lobby against a bump stock ban, and against a bill that would hold parents accountable if their child injures or kills people in a shooting.

The bill didn’t go anywhere, but it was introduced in Januray, months before a school shooting in Michigan. The shooter got life in prison and his parents have been sentenced to 10 years—the first parents to be convicted in a mass shooting. Since then, another parent has been charged for a September 2024 school shooting in Georgia.

He also lobbied in support of guns and gun manufacturers. 

In 2021, Gustoff registered to lobby for a bill that restricts people’s ability to sue gun manufacturers for “the lawful design, manufacture, marketing, or sale of a firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition,” or for “damages resulting from the criminal or unlawful use of a firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by a third party.”  

In 2021, Gustoff lobbied for an amendment to Iowa’s Constitution that makes it harder to regulate guns.

Anti-LGBTQ Laws

In 2021, he lobbied for a bill that would charge teachers or librarians with aggravated misdemeanors or felonies for “obscene material disseminated to a minor.” Schools and libraries don’t give children obscene material, but Republicans have reframed a lot of LGBTQ representation as “obscene.”

The 2021 bill didn’t go anywhere, but it was an early version of the book banning law that is now on the books, which Gustoff voted for.

While serving in the legislature, Gustoff has also voted for other anti-LGBTQ laws, including a ban on mentioning LGBTQ identities in elementary or middle school, a law denying gender-affirming health care to transgender children, and a law to forcibly out transgender students to parents, even if there are concerns parents will react badly.

Gustoff represents House District 40, which includes: Altoona, Des Moines, a portion of southern Ankeny and sections of unincorporated Polk County.

His opponent is Heather Sievers, a nurse and mother to a disabled child. She wants to protect and support education, restore reproductive rights, improve access to helath care, and bring her constituents’ voices to the Capitol.