CHARLES CITY – Rep. Rep. Todd Prichard, representing Floyd county opposes public money for private charter schools in Iowa, he said today in an email statement:
In the middle of the night, the majority party in the House passed legislation that overhauls Iowa’s charter school law. I opposed these changes for several reasons. I am a firm believer that public money should be for public schools. The legislation authorized the creation of charter schools funded with public tax dollars without the same transparency requirements as our public schools.
These charter schools also do not have elected school boards that are accountable to constituents and do not require the founding group of a charter to even be a member of the community where the charter school is being created.
We should be working to support our public schools to make up for lost time this past year not creating new unaccountable charter schools. In the end, the new law just further stresses our already under funded rural schools by siphoning away critical resources.
Feel free to reach out with questions or concerns. You can find my contact information at the bottom of this newsletter.