JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Juana Summers.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
And I'm Scott Detrow. As in many Republican-controlled states, Iowa's leaders have gone all in on school choice, pushing to create and expand alternatives to public schools. This has created a big problem for the Cedar Rapids public school district, which has been losing students and dollars to the competition, and now it is in a financial crisis. Last night, the district finalized a plan to close five elementary schools. This is after months of parents using school board meetings to vent their fear and frustration.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Have you thought about the cost of it? The emotional and mental impact it's going to have on our children? On the teachers' jobs that you are costing? Some of the best teachers I have ever seen in my damn life. I'm sorry.
DETROW: School choice programs like the ones in Iowa are growing across the country. NPR education correspondent Cory Turner traveled to Cedar Rapids to understand who wins and who loses when education meets the free market like this. Hey, Cory.
CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: Let's start with this. School choice can mean a lot of things to different people depending on who's saying it. So let's start by explaining what exactly we're talking about here.
TURNER: Yeah. So one of the reasons I went to Iowa is because the state has embraced really several kinds of school choice that we're seeing pop up individually all over the country. So one is open enrollment - that's what it's called - where students can choose to leave their local public school but go to another public school, either somewhere else in their own district or maybe in a neighboring district. Two, there are charter schools, which are technically public schools, but they're also pretty independent and they do compete with the public schools. So for example, in Cedar Rapids, there is a brand-new charter school just opened this year, and every child who left the public schools to enroll in this new charter school, they took more than $8,000 with them.
And then finally, Scott, Iowa has one of the most generous private school choice programs in the country, offering any child in the state $8,000 to pay for private schooling. Here is Iowa's Republican Governor Kim Reynolds talking about it back in January.
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KIM REYNOLDS: Our message to the nation is simple. In Iowa, we fund students, not systems.
TURNER: Now, that's a big shift away from tradition, where states, you know, help pay for a system of public schools, and anybody who wants to send their kids somewhere else can, but they have to pay for it.
DETROW: So given that thinking, tell me more about the families and students who are using these programs to go somewhere else.
TURNER: Well, in Cedar Rapids, I spoke with several families who had chosen to leave the local public schools for various reasons. So one family told me their daughter needed extra learning support, and they just felt like she was more likely to get it at this brand-new charter school. Another parent I spoke with, Stephanie King (ph), told me her daughter's public school just wasn't a good fit and that when they visited one of the local Catholic schools, they really liked it, even though they're not Catholic. So she used the state's voucher-like program to enroll there.
STEPHANIE KING: I feel like I'm doing my duty. My duty is to pay my taxes, which I do. And if I am able to take some of the money that I have paid in to educate my child to a place where I feel like my kid's getting a better education, I think that's OK.
DETROW: OK, so now let's talk about the schools. I'm curious. In addition to getting the state money, do charters and private schools have to accept anyone who applies, then? You know, especially lower-income families? Is this system opening up doors?
TURNER: It depends on what kind of schools we're talking about. So charter schools are generally, at least in Cedar Rapids, not allowed to be selective or charge tuition. So technically, cost should not be a barrier. It is a very different story, though, with private schools in the area. Cost can still be a barrier even with this new voucher program. New research from Princeton University has found that across Iowa, this new private school choice program led private schools to raise their prices by roughly 40%.
Now, that might be uncomfortable news for lawmakers who were hoping, you know, that it would help lower-income Iowans access private schools. It's also, in fact, by one estimate, a majority of the kids who are using this program now were already enrolled in a private school.
DETROW: Oh, interesting.
TURNER: Yeah. Meaning their families were already willing and able to pay tuition. I spoke with Democrat Rob Sand. He is Iowa's state auditor, and he is not a fan of paying private school students to keep doing what they were already doing.
ROB SAND: That is dumb. We should not be using tax dollars to subsidize behavior that would exist without it. We're not making a difference. We are literally wasting money when we give it to people to do a thing that they would be doing anyways.
DETROW: So, Cory, we started the story hearing from a parent who is really angry about this system. Tell me about the families and students who seem to be losing out here.
TURNER: Based on my reporting, the biggest concern that I heard is really around students with disabilities because even if a private school, Scott, takes voucher money, they're still allowed to turn away a disabled student by saying, look, we don't have the resources to serve you. And that may be true, but it also means that when we talk about school choice, for these kids, for students with disabilities, it's really the schools doing the choosing in many cases. And it also means that the only choice they have is to stay in the public schools where they have a federally protected right to an education.
Now, I visited one of those public schools. It's called Cleveland Elementary, and the principal there, Condra Allred, who has a background in special education, she told me she's had disabled students try to go to other choice schools only to be sent back to her in her public school. Allred told me school choice has dramatically changed her job.
CONDRA ALLRED: It's getting harder to harder to teach in public education. And those of us that are here and who've been doing it for 25, 26 years, we truly believe in public education because someone needs to - I'm sorry. Someone needs to love and care for these kids that nobody cares about. And it's not that the parents don't care. They don't have the access and know the federal laws and the laws to get them somewhere. And even if they did, they might be denied.
TURNER: And I should add, Scott, Allred's school is one of the five elementary schools that Cedar Rapids announced last night would officially be closed.
DETROW: So you've taken a close look at how this is working in Cedar Rapids. You have also reported on the fact that the federal government is preparing to launch its own school voucher-like program. So I'm curious what you think about this, what this expansion of school choice could mean for the country.
TURNER: Yeah. I mean, you're talking there about congressional Republicans including a really generous tax credit in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act that will essentially channel money to families, again, to help them pay for private school tuition. Bigger picture, I think school choice does offer some potential upsides for some families who know how to access these resources, but it also comes with really big risks. Again, I spoke with families who told me their kids are doing better thanks to school choice.
But in the rush to create alternatives to the public school, Scott, and to create competition, I worry that policymakers are forgetting that public schools are not businesses. They're not designed to compete, and that's because they're designed instead to serve every child. And maybe it is possible that some version of school choice can also serve every child. I don't think we know that yet, but it's really important when politicians and communities ask themselves - is this working? - that they're listening to the families of the most vulnerable children.
DETROW: That is NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Cory, thank you so much.
TURNER: You're welcome, Scott.
DETROW: And you can hear Cory's full reporting from Cedar Rapids, including the voices of even more families and school leaders, on the Up First podcast.
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