Sand, Stauch address what they would do about Iowa private school funding as Democratic governor

DES MOINES — The hypothetical future of Iowa’s taxpayer-funded private school tuition assistance program under a potential Democratic governor is coming into focus as the candidates campaign this summer.

In campaign appearances and interviews, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Rob Sand and Julie Stauch have laid out how their administration would manage Iowa’s Students First Education Savings Accounts, which was created in 2023 by Republican state lawmakers and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Under the program, families with a K-12 student enrolled at a private school may receive a taxpayer-funded scholarship equal to that year’s public school per pupil state funding level — nearly $8,000 in 2025-2026. That money can be used for tuition, fees and other school-related expenses eligible under the law.

The program was phased in over three years by household income; the 2025-2026 school year is the first in which all Iowa families are eligible for the program regardless of income.

Roughly 28,000 students enrolled in an accredited non-public school used taxpayer-funded scholarships in the 2024-25 school year, according to state figures.

Reynolds and the Republican-led Iowa Legislature budgeted $315 million from the state’s general fund budget for the program in the 2025-2026 school year.

Advocates for the program say it gives every Iowa student the ability to choose the school district that best suits them, while critics warn the program will operate to the detriment of public schools, which they say are underfunded.

Reynolds pushed hard for the program, going so far as to recruit primary election challengers to run against incumbent Republican lawmakers who did not support the program during the 2022 legislative session.

Reynolds announced earlier this year that she will not seek re-election in 2026.

What Rob Sand says he would do

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Sand, the state auditor since 2019 who is running for governor, has addressed the taxpayer-funded private school assistance program in campaign appearances. He called the legislation that created the program one of the “biggest invitations to waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars in Iowa history.”

Sand said he would introduce legislation that would require any private school that accepts taxpayer-funded scholarships to accept any student and be subject to a state audit and state open records and meetings laws, cap the amount those schools increase their tuition, and make the program available to families only up to a certain household income.

Sand said it is most likely that even if he is elected governor, he would serve for at least the first two years with a Republican-led Iowa Legislature. Iowa Republicans have supermajorities in both the Iowa Senate and House.

Sand told reporters before a campaign event earlier this month in Creston that he wants to “call (Republicans’) bluff on their stated support for what they call school choice.

“You want school choice? Fine. Make it so that if you take public dollars, you have to take the public, that you can’t turn kids away,” Sand said. “If this is supposed to be about promoting school choice for students, then put income caps on it so all the people who are already paying for their own kids’ private school tuition can continue to pay for it with the money they have. …

“Then I’d say, ‘Let’s put caps on how much (private schools) can increase tuition. If we’re giving you $7,500 then you can’t just hike up tuition, because allegedly this is about school choice’,” Sand said.

“(Supporters of the program) also like to say this is about competition for public schools because that’ll bring out the best. I love competition, but competition is where people follow the same rules and may the best competitor win,” Sand said. “So if this is about competition, then private schools should have to pay for an annual audit that is public so we can see how the money is getting spent. They should have to take on the burden of complying with public meetings and public records, again so we can see what’s going on with taxpayer money.”

Sand has not said what he would do with a Democratic majority in the Iowa Legislature, including whether he would fully repeal the program.

“I’m going to be working with a Republican Legislature. Even if a Democratic governor wanted to repeal the bill entirely, it ain’t gonna happen,” Sand said.

What Julie Stauch says she would do

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Stauch, a consultant and campaign veteran from West Des Moines, addressed the hypothetical and said, if armed with a willing Democratic majority in the Iowa Legislature, she would fully repeal the program.

“It’s a bad law. I would absolutely repeal it,” Stauch said.

Stauch also said she believes it is a mistake that the program no longer has income guidelines, and that private schools should be limited on how much they can increase their tuition after accepting taxpayer-funded scholarships.

“If you have enough money to pay for that schooling, and you choose to pay for that schooling, it’s not the state’s job to cover that bill. It’s the parents’ job,” Stauch said Monday in an interview. “Now, if there are people who want to have their kids go to a specific private school because of something they might learn, and they’re low income, then there might be a reason to help them. … I see that as a huge flaw, one of the many flaws in this concept.”

Stauch said because the private schools that accept scholarships are accepting taxpayer funding, those schools should be subject to state regulation of their tuition.

“This is a really awful program, and it is counter to the history and the character of Iowans,” Stauch said. “There isn’t any family out there that doesn’t want their children to do better than they did, and education is the way our children do better than we do.”

While Stauch expressed a willingness to repeal the program under a hypothetical all-Democratic Iowa statehouse, she also acknowledged that most likely, making changes to the program would be difficult and take time.

“As best as I can tell, there’s not a fast solution on this. It’s just going to require really digging in on legislative change,” Stauch said. “I would do as much as I can, as fast as I can. But I don’t think that one’s going to move as fast as I would like it to.”

Four Republicans are vying for the incumbent party’s nomination for governor: Western Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra, state legislators Eddie Andrews and Mike Bousselot, and former state legislator Brad Sherman.

Iowa’s primary election is June 2, 2026, and the general election is Nov. 3, 2026.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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