IA lawmaker's smart plan to lower property taxes and properly fund public schools: End vouchers
Vouchers to private schools have shorted once stellar public ones. Scrapping them would also enable continued funding for needed public services
The Iowa Legislature swung back into session last week, with Republican-majority lawmakers and the governor pushing lower property taxes as their top 2026 priority. In her Condition of the State speech, Gov. Kim Reynolds decried what she said was a 10%-plus hike to those in two years. She plans to cut $3 billion off them over six years, though she won’t be in office after this one.
Property taxes are a major source of local revenue for everything from schools to police and fire departments, roads, highways and sewer repairs. Reynolds’ plan would also limit revenue growth for local government services to 2 %, with some exceptions. In Iowa, each local taxing authority sets its own tax rate. Iowa’s average rate of 1.49% (Polk County’s is 1.81%) makes our state’s the nation’s country’s 10th highest in property taxes.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner pushed back against the GOP’s tax cut proposals, which she said would favor the wealthy and corporations at the expense of public schools. Funding for K-12 schools comes from a combination of local property taxes and state aid. Iowa public schools are already struggling because of Republicans’ school voucher programs, which unnecessarily move public education dollars into private schools. “The Republicans have had the trifecta now for nine years…” the Iowa City Democrat told Senate colleagues, “What we’re not seeing is a focus on working Iowans.”
But another Democratic state senator has an alternative approach that could, if passed and implemented, achieve both sides’ goals. It would cut property taxes but offset the losses to public schools by increasing the share the state pays. That would be achieved by ending vouchers. Sen. Herman Quirmbach’s bill is expected to be introduced next week.
Quirmbach, of Ames, is a retired ISU economics professor with a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton. He has the numbers and has done the math, while focusing on fairness factors. More than 40 Iowa counties don’t even have a private school, so vouchers don’t benefit their residents. “Most voucher families are concentrated in urban and suburban areas,” he told me. “My property tax plan benefits every property owner in every county.”
The share of property taxes that go to public schools rely on a “uniform levy” of $5.40 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. Quirmbach’s proposal would lower that uniform levy by about 25%. He estimates doing that would save property taxpayers across the board about $326 million. The state’s higher share of public-school funding would be more than compensated by stopping the outflow of state funds now going to private-school vouchers about $327 million this fiscal year, he says.
The ranking member of the Senate Education Committee, Quirmbach has been in the Legislature since 2002. He sees this as a win-win solution. Since the cost to the state is covered, it won’t contribute to a deficit.
Property taxes can be viewed as regressive because the owners of low- and moderate-income properties are taxed at the same rate as those who own high-end homes and businesses. But Quirmbach says his proposed property tax relief will help everyone, from seniors on fixed incomes trying to stay in their homes to young, first-time home buyers, struggling farmers and small businesses. And the cuts won’t diminish cities’ and counties’ ability to provide essential services, from police and fire protection to snow clearance and library hours.
It’s a smart solution. Iowa should never have instituted school vouchers, which Reynolds promoted to parents uncomfortable with school districts accommodating students’ gender identities in school bathroom policies.
Vouchers don’t just shortchange public schools financially; they also strip away promising public-school students. And they indirectly funnel state funds to religious schools by giving the voucher money to parents. Most of Iowa’s private schools are parochial, and that would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
Under Quirmbach’s plan, not only wouldn’t taxpayers be forced to pay for parochial education, but we wouldn’t have to pay for schools that can turn away students at will. He says the voucher program benefits only 8% of Iowa school children, while property tax relief “benefits every child whose family owns a home--or is trying to buy one.” And he says 80% of Iowa families receiving vouchers could afford private school without them, while “My property tax plan benefits all homeowners regardless of income.” It also directly benefits businesses, which the voucher program doesn’t.
Quirmbach’s research shows that in the nine years since Reynolds became governor, state funding for Iowa K-12 public schools has effectively declined by more than $526 million a year by not keeping up with inflation. For this fiscal year alone, the shortfall amounts to $1,048 less per student without special needs. It drains up to $3,537 from a special- needs student.
Just to offset inflation and unmet per pupil costs since fiscal year 2017 would have required 11.4% more in per-child funding for this fiscal year -- well over the 2.0% enacted. The 2% Governor Reynolds has proposed for next year would put us even further behind, Quirmbach said, given this year’s inflation.
Looking at the financial costs to all sectors of public education is even more daunting. When you add in community colleges and Regents higher-level institutions, Quirmbach finds a cumulative $3.75 billion shorting of public education in Reynolds’ nine years in office. That’s especially alarming since Iowa public schools and universities used to be some of the country’s best, and a big draw for families, including mine, that were considering moving here. The public schools here served my children well.
Iowa also used to be good at forging political compromise between parties, but we’ve sadly moved away from that too. Quirmbach’s well-researched and reasoned compromise proposal on schools and property taxes offers a new start. Lawmakers and the public should give serious consideration to how the plan could fix multiple problems, and then work together to get it passed.
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I maintain that vouchers are an example of ‘Taxation without Representation’. Simply, our public school tax dollars are subject to scrutiny by an elected school board. OUR school board. Private schools have no such guidance as to how they spend our taxes; no obligation to enroll disabled students and aren’t subject to audits. Also, unlike public schools, privates are able to contribute to election campaigns. Within a year of enactment, several privates went to our lawmakers for more funds. See the problem? They must make a profit but aren’t obligated to say where our tax dollars went.
Excellent article and excellent proposal by Rep Quirmbach!