Ed I agree with your financial assessment but I feel you need to talk more about supporting private schools, which for the most part are Christian schools, making the policy unconstitutional. I have no issue with private schools which is a parental choice. Supporting them with public education dollars is promoting one religious view over others. Even though the vast majority of Iowans are Christian as is the United States we don't have a national religion. Our constitution is very straight forward in separating church and state interests and taking tax dollars for private schools is clearly not constitutional correct. I do believe however that if you send your kids to a private school and the private school cannot provide the class you child wants to take or doesn't have the facility to accommodate extracurricular activities, the public schools should make them available to all tax payers.
Ed - I'm a new subscriber today. Thank you for your good work. I grew up in Iowa, now living in Rock Island. But when people ask me where I'm from, I answer, "I live in Illinois, but I'm from Iowa."
I am a skeptic regarding our public schools ability to fix themselves, irrespective of funding. I acknowledge your point regarding the last year, but in the long term national trend, including Iowa, public school funding has exceeded inflation even while achievement declines. In my opinion, the delivery model is broken, so I empathize with the idea of redirecting funds. The industry needs disruption.
Iowa spends over $11,000 per student. Could our community do a better job if we controlled all of that funding locally? I would love to see that question explored.
BTW, I'm a substack writer, too. Check out Uncommon Sense at https://joelelorentzen.substack.com. I address this very discussion in an essay called Dichotomy of Scale. Let me know what you think.
Your column is right on Ed. My wife and I have talked about this many times. We sent our kids to parochial schools and were willing to make that sacrifice. We did not expect, nor want, money from the state to do so.
This should be on the front page of every newspaper, and since readership has plummeted, it should be on the commentary of every tv sports program, and on Facebook, and on billboards … condensed for the short attention spans of many voters!
Ed I agree with your financial assessment but I feel you need to talk more about supporting private schools, which for the most part are Christian schools, making the policy unconstitutional. I have no issue with private schools which is a parental choice. Supporting them with public education dollars is promoting one religious view over others. Even though the vast majority of Iowans are Christian as is the United States we don't have a national religion. Our constitution is very straight forward in separating church and state interests and taking tax dollars for private schools is clearly not constitutional correct. I do believe however that if you send your kids to a private school and the private school cannot provide the class you child wants to take or doesn't have the facility to accommodate extracurricular activities, the public schools should make them available to all tax payers.
Ed - I'm a new subscriber today. Thank you for your good work. I grew up in Iowa, now living in Rock Island. But when people ask me where I'm from, I answer, "I live in Illinois, but I'm from Iowa."
I am a skeptic regarding our public schools ability to fix themselves, irrespective of funding. I acknowledge your point regarding the last year, but in the long term national trend, including Iowa, public school funding has exceeded inflation even while achievement declines. In my opinion, the delivery model is broken, so I empathize with the idea of redirecting funds. The industry needs disruption.
Iowa spends over $11,000 per student. Could our community do a better job if we controlled all of that funding locally? I would love to see that question explored.
BTW, I'm a substack writer, too. Check out Uncommon Sense at https://joelelorentzen.substack.com. I address this very discussion in an essay called Dichotomy of Scale. Let me know what you think.
Your column is right on Ed. My wife and I have talked about this many times. We sent our kids to parochial schools and were willing to make that sacrifice. We did not expect, nor want, money from the state to do so.
Thanks for telling the truth to the citizens of Iowa!
This should be on the front page of every newspaper, and since readership has plummeted, it should be on the commentary of every tv sports program, and on Facebook, and on billboards … condensed for the short attention spans of many voters!
Very well named and stated!