IA: Choice Fan Calls For Actual Choice

It finally happened.

School choice fans virtually never campaign against the real obstacles to school choice. Those obstacles are not located in the public school system-- they are created and maintained by the private schools. Most voucher laws include language that specifically protects the school's ability to operate as they wish, including discriminating against aspiring students for any reason they choose-- or no reason at all. That includes exempting themselves from laws requiring IEP compliance for students with special needs.

It's almost as if the real purpose of voucher programs is not to provide choice for students, but to provide public tax dollars for private often-religious institutions.

Never have we heard a pro-choice legislator stand up to say, "For real choice, we have to require that voucher-accepting schools must serve all comers."

But that rare unicorn of a legislator just turned up in Iowa, of all places.

Iowa is one of the voucheriest states in the country. 99% of the private school students in Iowa are getting taxpayer dollars to subsidize their education (and most of them were private school students before they got the taxpayer-funded voucher). Every private school in the state is being subsidized to some degree by taxpayers. 

But here comes U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra, a Trump-backing businessman and politician.

Feenstra dropped this school choice bomb at a recent talking-to-conservatives event. As reported by Katarina Sostaric for Iowa Public Radion:

“I am supportive of the idea of ESAs,” he said. “I just will say this, that every school has to make sure they take every child, right? If we have to compete on a level playing field, the playing field has to be level all the way. That’s so important.”

“When we start looking at raising all boats, we have to make sure that all schools can take all kids,” he said. “If you have a child that has an IEP, and you’re a parent, the parent should decide, ‘Hey, I want my child to go to that school,' and the school should accommodate.”

This is extra special because Feenstra is running for governor, though he could offer no specifics about how exactly he would make his wild idea an actual policy.

It is rare (like Yeti-riding-a-unicorn rare) for a choicer to call for actual choice. Some folks on the right have been warning about this for a while, arguing that vouchers are just a long=game way for government to get its grubby hands on private schools. 

They may have a point. Or Feenstra might actually have thought through the real implications of calling for school choice. Or he may be trying to make taxpayer-funded vouchers more palatable to the voters (voters have never ever, given the choice) approved school vouchers. 

Don't get too excited about this guy. On the same occasion, he argued that teachers should be freed from paperwork so that they can focus on "teaching fundamentals, like math, reading, science and 'the correct history.'” And if you have any doubts about what that means:

“But I’ll say this also, God is in control, right?” Feenstra said. “We have to always remember who is in control of this great country, this great world, and it’s our God, right? Kids have to understand that.”

When asked about that comment, Feenstra said the question was “misrepresenting” what he said.

“I’m just simply saying that parents should decide where they want to go to school, private or public,” he said. “And it’s whatever a parent’s faith believes, they should be able to send their child to the school that they want that child to go to.”

Feenstra also wants to lower and freeze property taxes and fund schools with fairy dust. Just kidding. He didn't offer an idea about how to fund schools.  

So, not a friend of public education, but also willing to call out one of the central lies of the taxpayer-funded school voucher movement. 

There are four other GOP candidates for governor, so we'll have to wait till June to see if Feenstra is impressing voters, in which case the school choice movement might have to figure out how to deal with someone who wants to offer actual school choice instead of the faux choice that is the norm.