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Welcoming and working

It is week two in the legislative session. This week I was the chair of four subcommittees regarding the following house files: HF 41, HF 45, HF 46, and HF 32. These bills passed subcommittee and will now be moving forward to committee.

This week, Iowa House Democrats repeated their misleading claim that “Reynolds’ private school voucher program will cost Iowa taxpayers $1 billion.” They posted this on Facebook with a graphic they made to look like a news article. The actual number expected to be spent on ESAs during this school year is $218 million, a far cry from $1 billion. Next Fiscal Year, this number is expected to grow to roughly $314 million. Again, nowhere near $1 billion. In order to reach their $1 billion number, you’d have to add up all the money spent on the ESA program from its implementation in Fiscal Year 2024 all the way until its projected cost in Fiscal Year 2027. Obviously, if you keep adding year-over-year you can eventually get to whatever number you want. However, it’s important context to note that over that same time period, the state will spend roughly $16 billion on public education.

In the FY 2025 budget, state aid to public schools accounts for 43.62 percent of the entire state budget. That’s the biggest piece of the pie by far. ESAs, meanwhile, account for 2.01 percent of the total state budget. The Democrats are resorting to misleading tactics to manipulate their followers into believing a false narrative around ESAs. ESAs are not breaking the state budget. The state is not spending more on private than public education. And ESAs will not cost the state even close $1 billion this or next fiscal year.

If you ever have any questions, feel free to email me at joshua.meggers@legis.iowa.gov or visit my Facebook page at Joshua Meggers for Iowa House. Feel free to come visit me within the Capitol at any time!

Thank you.

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Joshua Meggers, a Republican from Grundy Center, represents District 54 in the Iowa House.

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