Iowa’s Private School Boom Is Reshaping Public Education
In today’s Des Moines Register print edition Samantha Hernandez and Tim Webber examine how Iowa’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program is rapidly transforming the state’s education landscape. The ESA program redirects public education dollars into private school tuition and has resulted in accelerated shifts in enrollment across Iowa. Under the program, families can receive $7,998 per student for the 2025–26 school year to pay for private education expenses. What began as a limited-income program has now expanded to universal eligibility, allowing families of any income level to redirect the state per-pupil funding that would otherwise go to their local public school district. Read more about ESAs.
The effects are becoming increasingly visible. Private school enrollment has grown by more than 7,000 students since the ESA program began, while public school enrollment has dropped roughly 3% statewide. At the same time, Iowa has seen a surge in new private institutions: 65 nonpublic schools have opened since 2023, compared with 17 closures. In many communities, ESA participation is approaching universal adoption among private school students. In Carroll, for example, nearly every student attending Kuemper Catholic now uses an ESA, while districts across northwest Iowa report that one-quarter to nearly half of resident students are attending private schools with ESA support.
For families like Megan Rassel of Carroll, the program has made private education financially possible again. Her two younger children now attend Kuemper Catholic School using ESA funding after previously transferring to public school due to cost concerns. Supporters of the program argue that this is exactly the outcome lawmakers intended: expanding access to private education and giving families more freedom to choose schools aligned with their academic, religious, or cultural priorities.
But the shift is creating significant financial pressure on public school systems. Districts such as Ankeny, Johnston, and Urbandale report losing from hundreds of thousands to more than a million dollars annually in state aid as students transfer to private schools. Although the state provides partial reimbursement for lost enrollment, school officials say it covers only a fraction of the funding gap. The result is already forcing districts to cut budgets, reduce programs, and reassess staffing levels.
Our Take
The ESA debate is often framed as “school choice versus public education,” but that framing misses the deeper structural issue. Iowa is now operating two publicly subsidized education systems. One that is accountable to taxpayers and the other largely outside the same transparency and oversight requirements. Public schools must accept every student, meet extensive reporting obligations, and serve as the backbone of community education systems. Private schools receiving ESA funding are not held to those same standards.
Supporters argue that competition will improve education outcomes. But competition only works when both systems operate under comparable rules. When one system can select students, set admissions standards, and avoid many public accountability requirements while still receiving taxpayer funds, the playing field is not level, it is tilted.
The result may be less about expanding opportunity and more about redistributing public education resources. As public districts lose enrollment and funding, they must still maintain buildings, transportation systems, special education services, and staff to serve the remaining students. In other words, the costs of running a public school system do not shrink as quickly as enrollment does.
The long-term question for Iowa is not simply whether families deserve educational choice. It is whether the state is gradually transforming public education from a universal public service into a two-tier system, one publicly funded but privately managed, and another increasingly strained by declining resources. That debate is only beginning.
