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Iowa, national conservative leaders talk abortion, school choice at Family Leader event

Iowa and national conservative leaders discussed wins and future goals for issues like abortion and education policy Friday at the Family Leadership Summit, with one of the group’s officials calling for further abortion restrictions in Iowa. The Family Leader, an influential conservative Christian organization, brought speakers to the gathering of an estimated 1,000 at the […]

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Iowa Dept. of Education doesn’t know how much the new school choice program will cost this year, but it’ll exceed estimates by millions

A total of 18,893 applications for Gov. Reynolds’ new school-voucher-style education savings account (ESA) program were approved this year, the Iowa Department of Education disclosed on Thursday. That’s far more than the enrollment estimate provided to lawmakers by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) when the bill creating the program to divert public school funds […]

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Gov. Reynolds’ ESA program, fast-tracked through the Iowa Legislature, goes into effect May 31

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office announced on Thursday morning that the new “Students First Education Savings Accounts” program will begin accepting applications on May 31. In the same statement, the governor’s office unveiled the administrative rules for the voucher-style program and other information. Passing a law to create a program to divert money from public to […]

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Gov. Reynolds: Admin costs, accountability standards for ESA plan unknown until after it’s approved, ‘parental rights bill’ will only affect public schools (Updated)

Update: Despite the lack of details regarding how the governor’s program would be administered, the Iowa Senate approved the education savings account bill shortly before 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The House approved the bill earlier on Monday night. In the Senate, three Republicans joined all the Democrats in voting against the bill. Nine Republicans in […]

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