One of the most common arguments against school choice is the slogan, “No public money for private schools.”
It sounds simple, but it is not applied consistently.
Public money reaches private institutions all the time. It happens in health care, higher education, housing, food assistance, child care, and other public programs. The question is not whether public dollars ever reach a private provider. They do.
The real question is whether the program serves a legitimate public purpose, whether participants are eligible, and whether providers follow the rules.
That is the standard used almost everywhere else. K-12 education should not be singled out simply because some opponents dislike school choice.
Public Funding Does Not Require Government Delivery
No one says Medicare is illegitimate because seniors receive care from private doctors or private hospitals. No one says SNAP is invalid because families use benefits at privately owned grocery stores. No one says housing vouchers are an attack on public housing because families rent from private landlords.
In each case, government helps people access a service through approved providers. The provider may be private, but the purpose is public.
Education is no different.
A program can be publicly funded, privately delivered, and still serve the public good. That is a normal feature of American public policy.
Iowa Already Supports Students at Private Colleges
Iowa already recognizes this principle in higher education.
The Iowa Tuition Grant helps Iowa residents attend eligible private colleges and universities in our state. The program is not usually attacked as “public money for private colleges,” even though that description would be accurate.
Why? Because the benefit is tied to the student’s education, not to preserving one type of institution.
Education savings accounts follow the same basic principle.
If it is legitimate for Iowa to help a student attend a private college, why is it illegitimate for Iowa to help a child attend an accredited nonpublic K-12 school?
Opponents rarely answer that question directly. Instead, they act as if public support for private education is unprecedented. It is not. Iowa has already accepted the principle that public dollars may help students access private educational institutions.
K-12 families deserve the same respect already extended to college students.
Education Remains a Public Good When Parents Choose
A child’s education does not stop serving the public good because the child attends a nonpublic school.
Iowa benefits when children learn to read, write, reason, work, serve, and contribute to their communities. That benefit exists whether a child is educated in a public school, an accredited nonpublic school, a charter school, or another lawful educational setting.
The public benefit does not depend on who owns the building.
School choice recognizes that children are different. Families are different. Schools are different. A school that works well for one child may not be the right fit for another.
Respecting those differences is not an attack on public education. It is an acknowledgment that education exists for students, not systems.
Focus on the Student
The question should not be whether a provider is public or private.
The question should be whether the program serves students and advances a legitimate public purpose.
In education, that purpose is not protecting one delivery model. It is educating children.
When public dollars help a child access an education that fits, those dollars are not being diverted from education. They are being used for education.
That is true when Iowa helps a student attend a private college. It is also true when an education savings account helps an Iowa family choose an accredited nonpublic school for their child.
Public money should serve the public good. Helping children receive an education that meets their needs does exactly that.