Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

In 1987, the legislature enacted the Postsecondary Enrollment Options Act to allow junior and senior high school students to take nonsectarian college courses. The district pays for the courses if the student passes.[1]

During the same year, Iowa enacted legislation that allowed parents with household incomes under $45,000 to deduct up to $1,000 per child for education-related expenses. If using the standard deduction, parents could take a credit equal to 5 percent of $1,000 ($50) for each child.[2] In 1996, the credit was raised to 10 percent and the income eligibility limit was removed.[3]

In 1998, then-Governor Terry E. Branstad signed House File 2513, which increased the tax credit from 10 percent to 25 percent of the first $1,000. This revision stipulated that "materials for extracurricular activities" were also eligible for the tax credit.[4]

In 1999, H.F. 12 was introduced to increase the tuition tax credit to 50 percent of the first $1,000. House Study Bill 776 similarly would have increased the tuition tax credit and provided tax credits to individuals and corporations that donated to scholarship organizations. Neither bill was passed. A similar attempt was made during the 2001-2002 session in Senate File 86 to raise the tuition tax credit to 50 percent, but no action was taken on the bill.[5]

Iowa offers interdistrict public school choice. Parents are responsible for transporting students to regularly scheduled bus routes. Sending districts reimburse low-income parents for this cost.[6] The superintendent can deny student transfers if they upset the racial quotas. This authority was used in 1992 when Iowa's largest school district, Des Moines, denied more than 100 white students the right to transfer while granting six minority student transfers. The school board determined that the white students' transfers would have hindered desegregation efforts in the district. Des Moines' then-Superintendent of Schools Gary L. Wegenke stated that the transfers would have cost the district state funds used for at-risk student programs.[7]

The district revised its desegregation standards in 1993, and the standards were upheld in a district court decision in 1995. Under the revised standards, which are currently in effect, student transfers will be denied "if [they] would cause the minority enrollment percentage in either the sending or receiving school to exceed the District's minority enrollment percentage" by more than 15 percentage points.[8]

Iowa's open enrollment law allows both private school students and home-school students to participate in classes or extracurricular activities that are paid for with state funds at public schools. For each student in this dual-enrollment program, public schools receive one-tenth of the state funds that are given for each full-time public school student. In March 2001, the Ankeny school district in Polk County approved a measure preventing students who are 16 and older (those no longer "compelled" to be in school) from participating in this dual-enrollment program. This restriction was designed to save district funds by not providing tuition for dual-enrollment students who are eligible to take college classes. Parents protested the decision, which had the additional effect of preventing students from participating in public school athletic programs.[9] Faced with legislation that would have nullified its age restrictions, the board decided to defer action regarding dual-enrollment participation in 2002 until after the legislature adjourned for the year. In 2001, there were more than 3,000 dual-enrollment students in Iowa, 65 of whom were in the Ankeny District.[10]

Governor Tom Vilsack signed Iowa's charter school law (S.F. 348) in April 2002. S.F. 348 provides for a pilot program allowing 10 charters, but provisions in the bill stipulate that the law will be effective only after the state receives funding under a federal grant for charter schools.[11] Further, charter schools are given little flexibility and cannot waive most regulations.[12] Because of the bill's funding provision, the federal government did not recognize the statute as a true charter school law, and federal money was not granted under the federal charter school program in the No Child Left Behind Act. In 2003, H.F. 13 and S.F. 172 were introduced to require the Iowa State Board of Education to apply for a federal grant. S.F. 172 was signed into law.[13](156) In 2003, the state received a $1.1 million charter school grant and within a year approved two charter applications.[14]

On April 26, 2002, Governor Vilsack signed S.F. 2259, overruling the Ankeny district's dual-enrollment policy. The bill allows both private school students and home-school students to attend classes or participate in athletics at public schools throughout their high school years.[15](157)

In February 2003, Representative Carmine Boal (R-70) introduced H.F. 268, which would have expanded the tax credit to include the costs of books and other materials used for supplemental education services.[16] Representative Dwayne Alons (R-5) introduced H.F. 474 to create a tax credit worth 25 percent of the first $1,000 spent on books or tuition fees.[17] The bills did not progress.

The Iowa legislature passed S.F. 2295 to provide a tax credit equal to 75 percent of a contribution to charitable organizations that give tuition scholarships to students to attend private schools. The maximum credit was $700 for individuals and $800 for married filers. The bill required tuition scholarship organizations to give priority to students from families with incomes less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Organizations were obliged to award two-thirds of their scholarships to students who had not attended private school the previous year. The governor vetoed the bill on May 14, 2004.[18]

In January 2005, State Representative Jodi Tymeson (R-73) introduced H.F. 25, which would have created a tax credit program for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, similar to program operating in Arizona.[19] The bill was withdrawn in March.