Limited vision has always been a problem for our traditional K-12 school system. The system is mired in 20th century, and sometimes 19th century, practices like an August to May school calendar, a curriculum that goes a mile wide and an inch deep, and student assessments based in rote memorization.
So when education savings accounts (ESAs) – vouchers – began to become popular (mainly in red states), education transformers became hopeful that ESAs would be used to support young learners in their pursuit of academic growth, stronger relationships, empowering decision-making, anytime/anywhere learning, and advanced technology. Instead, what could have been the most important transformation across the K-12 educational landscape, has turned out to be a simple and disappointment transfer of money from traditional public schools to traditional private schools.
The Des Moines Register reported last week that,
“Megan Rassel used to send her oldest son to Kuemper Catholic School before finances grew too tight and made public education the affordable alternative.”
“But this year, two of Rassel’s sons, ages 4 and 8, are going to attend Kuemper in Carroll.”
“State dollars are now subsidizing her kids’ private education. Iowa’s new Education Savings Accounts provide $7,998 in state money for the 2025-26 school year for her 8-year-old son’s private school tuition and expenses.”
“’I just felt that, especially in this world today, it felt important that my kids have that faith-based education on top of a good academic education,’ the Lutheran mom of three said. Her older son, 13-year-old Kaleb Gehling, has continued his education in Carroll’s public school system.”
“Rassel is one of a growing number of Iowans using the 2023 law that allows families – no matter their income – to apply for an ESA account that lets them divert the per-pupil state funding that would otherwise go to their local public school district and use it for private school expenses, including tuition.”
“In Carroll, the number of students living within the public school district and using ESAs increased 46% from the 2024-25 school year. Statewide, hundreds of students have left public schools for private schooling at the taxpayers’ expense.”
“Republicans and private school educators say the law has created true school choice for the state’s 510,430 students, including for families like Rassel’s.”
“The law’s opponents say the savings accounts have effectively subsidized private schools at the expense of public education.”
“Indeed, 99% of the private school students in Iowa are now using ESAs to pay for their schooling, and most already attended private school before the law passed, according to a Des Moines Register analysis.”
Iowans, and other Republican-dominated states across the country, are probably right when they tout school choice expansion with the passage of recent ESA legislation. When the focus is on the school as the unit of change, then choice has been increased.
But what about “learner choice?” What about a young learner and their family that would like to build their own learning plan, hire an adult learning coach for support, and work to improve their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills, along with building their character and exploring their passions, outside of the traditional school building? Why aren’t they given access to public money like the private schools?
It’s time to stop talking about school choice and rewarding those who work inside that box with available public money. It’s time to start emphasizing learner choice and learner rights, while supporting new types of learning organizations, like learning pods, microschools, and advanced homeschooling, with state dollars.
Finally a word of advice to current K-12 public school leadership. Stop your whining about losing state dollars and start learning a word that private industry has understood from the beginning – competition. If public schools are going to survive in their current state, and the jury is definitely out on that question, then they need to understand there is a different playing field out there these days. And that different playing field includes private schools and should include other types of out of school learning options.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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