Meeting Public Comments

Jude Schwalbach [Reason Foundation]

To: Iowa House Education CommitteeFrom: Jude Schwalbach, Senior Policy Analyst, Reason FoundationDate: February 26, 2025My name is Jude Schwalbach, and Im a senior education policy analyst with Reason Foundation, a national 501c(3) nonprofit policy research organization. Im testifying on Iowa House File (H.F.) 68.Currently, all Iowa school districts must have an open enrollment policy that requires districts to accept transfer applicants if seats are available. Iowa H.F. 68, however, would modify this policy so that school districts can reject applicants who are English Learners (EL) based on EL program capacity instead of gradelevel capacity. If codified, this proposal would be a step backwards for Iowas students and families.Iowa law requires all school districts to have Lau Plans, which show how they plan to meet the needs of nonEnglish speaking students regardless of their current EL enrollment. Moreover, school districts must accept all transfer applicants regardless of their EL status so long as seats are open in the appropriate grade level. This ensures that public schools with available seats are open to all students regardless of where they live.H.F. 68, however, would let school districts artificially limit the number of EL students in their schools since EL applicants would not be considered on equal footing with Englishspeaking applicants in the same grade. EL students schooling options should not be unfairly limited when all school districts must accommodate EL students needs. Moreover, only 2% of Iowa students using open enrollment during the 202324 school year were ELs, according to the Iowa Department of Education data. Even though Iowas EL population is fast growing, most transfer students arent ELs. Instead of limiting students schooling options as suggested by H.F. 68, policymakers should make the open enrollment process more family friendly. Specifically, school districts should be required to post their available capacity by grade level and all open enrollment policies and procedures on their websites, ensuring that families can easily learn when, where, and how to apply for a transfer. Iowas neighbor, Nebraska, already requires school districts to do this.Students use strong open enrollment programs like Iowas to attend public schools that are the right fit, escape bullying, access Advanced Placement (AP) courses, specialized learning models, smaller class sizes, and shorten their commutes. K12 open enrollment is popular in the state. About one in 12 Iowa students used it to find the best public school for them during the 202324 school year. Similarly, data from Arizona, Florida, and Wisconsin showed that about one in 10 students in those states used open enrollment to attend schools that are the right fit.A California Legislative Analysts Offices 2016 report on the states District of Choice program and A Reason Foundations 2023 study on Wisconsins open enrollment results both found that the competitive effects of open enrollment can encourage public school districts to improve. In a 2023 EdChoice report, school district administrators in Arizona, North Carolina, Indiana, and Florida stated that open enrollment encouraged them to innovate by creating and improving existing programs to attract and retain students. According to national polling released by EdChoice in January 2025, open enrollment is supported by 73% of school parents. It also enjoys bipartisan support: 81% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans favor allowing families to attend schools across district lines. Only 15 other states have strong open enrollment policies like Iowas. Yet H.F. 68 would undermine the states excellent law since it would unfairly limit the schooling options for EL students. Instead, policymakers should ensure that public schools remain open to all EL students and make the open enrollment process more family friendly.