Iowa’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program spent $258 million on private school tuition in fiscal year 2026, according to a report by State Auditor Rob Sand. The report found that nearly 79% of students who used the program were already projected to attend private schools.
Program Details
The ESA program provides funding to students to use on tuition and associated costs at private schools. The program had an estimated appropriation of $329.6 million for fiscal year 2026. The auditor’s report said that the state paid roughly $38,000 per student for the 20% of ESA program users who were not already projected to attend private schools.
The report also found that there has been an increase in the number of nonpublic schools opening in the state, as well as an increase in the number of private school openings and closings. However, these schools are smaller and more likely to shut down on a year-to-year basis.
Response from Iowa Department of Education
The Iowa Department of Education called the report a ‘policy advocacy brief’ that critiqued statutory provisions of the ESA program. The department said that the report did not request data from the department, inform the department about the development of the report, or allow the department to review the report for ‘data accuracy’.
The department also pointed out that the report ‘omits’ public school funding, which amounted to more than $37.9 million in fiscal year 2026. The department said that public school enrollment was in decline ‘long before’ the ESA program was implemented in 2023.
Original reporting: KCCI Des Moines — read the source article.
