Iowa Senate Panel Advances School Savings Accounts

DES MOINES — A plan to provide taxpayer-funded accounts for parents looking to enroll their kids in private schools was hailed Thursday as a viable option to spur educational choice while critics worried it would siphon money from already cash-starved public schools.Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, chaired a three-member Senate Appropriations subcommittee that advanced legislation to establish education savings accounts in July 2019 using state grants of about $4,042 that parents of eligible children in grades kindergarten to 12 could use to pay costs of sending their children to nonpublic schools.