podcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews Iowa Senator Amy Sinclair on choice expansion in Hawkeye State

On this episode, Tuthill talks to the chair of Iowa’s Senate Education Committee about an aggressive push during the 2021 legislative session to expand education choice options for public, private, and homeschool students.

The state failed to pass an education savings account due to concerns from rural districts and private school operators, but Iowa families counted many victories out of the session.

Tuthill and Sinclair discuss successes such as increasing tuition and textbook tax credits, expanding open enrollment options in districts that had been preventing it, and a new charter school authorization process for groups looking to serve communities of need.

“All in all, whether your student is going to public, non-public, homeschool, or charter we have robust choice in the state of Iowa that didn’t exist prior to this legislative session.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

  • Sinclair’s personal education choice story involving her three children and their individual school journeys
  • Education choice in Iowa before the 2021 legislative session and where things stand now
  • The legislative politics of starting with a single omnibus bill for choice expansion and how the state House broke it into different pieces
  • The politics behind the losing effort to create an education savings account program in Iowa
  • Plans for education choice expansion in Iowa

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BY reimaginED staff

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