Iowa House bill would remove regulations on homeschool providers
Iowa parents who homeschool their children would be allowed to teach other people’s children and charge tuition under a bill advancing in the Iowa House.
The bill, House File 88, would make a range of other changes to homeschool requirements and other education law in Iowa, including:
- Exempting homeschooled children from disclosing their vaccination status or whether they’ve been tested for lead;
- Banning teachers from teaching students gender-neutral forms of world languages; and
- Removing the requirement that homeschooled elementary school students be taught science and social studies.
A three-member House subcommittee voted 2-1 Monday to advance the bill, with Reps. Samantha Fett, R-Carlisle, and Dan Gehlbach, R-Urbandale, in favor and Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, opposed.
On Wednesday, an amended version of the bill passed the House Education Committee on a 14-9 vote, making it eligible for debate in the full House.
“This bill allows good parents to be freer than they already are,” Fett said. “So we will be moving forward with this bill.”
Matson said “people can choose to homeschool their kids” but added that the state has an obligation “to make sure everyone is taken care of in some way.”
“The right to homeschool doesn’t mean the right to bigger tax credits or a reversal on public health or to charge tuition to other families without having to prove that you’re qualified in every single subject to teach those unrelated children,” she said.
More:Why did ‘climate change,’ human ‘evolution’ vanish from Iowa’s proposed science standards?
Homeschool providers could teach unrelated children, charge tuition
The bill would strike a line in the law that says homeschool providers shall not charge tuition or fees for their instruction, and another line that says homeschool providers may instruct no more than four unrelated students.
Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa, said the groups she represents are concerned about allowing homeschool providers to teach children they aren’t related to and to charge tuition.
“I think there’s a point where it’s no longer homeschool and it becomes a third category of unregulated or less regulated private school,” she said.
Lauren Gideon, a homeschool parent of seven and a lobbyist for Classical Conversations, a Christian homeschool curriculum provider, said allowing parents to charge tuition for homeschooling “opens up a great option for parents” who are already teaching their own children.
“I keep teaching the same content, but I’m able to receive compensation for my services and also have revenue streams that allow me to operate on my convictions in my home,” she said.
The bill’s author, Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, said his measure would give more flexibility to families in circumstances such as when a parent gets sick and can’t homeschool that day.
“Nobody’s wanting to set up little schools of 20 or 30 kids in their homes,” he said. “That’s an absurd notion, first of all, but that’s not the intent there.”
The bill also says that a diploma or credential issued by a homeschool provider must be considered to be the equivalent of a high school diploma and that colleges and universities cannot discriminate against a student based on whether they were homeschooled.
Homeschooled children would not have to disclose whether they’ve been vaccinated or tested for lead
The bill strikes part of Iowa law saying parents of homeschooled children must provide school districts with evidence their child has received the vaccines the state requires, and that elementary school age children who are homeschooled have had their blood tested for lead.
Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for Blank Children’s Hospital, said the hospital opposes the bill because it removes the requirement that students share their vaccination status.
“Especially the lead test level, that is critical to children’s health. … We know that there’s lead in our homes in rural Iowa and in urban areas of Iowa,” she said. “We know young children who are putting things in their mouths are often exposed to high levels of lead. That can impact their long-term ability to learn and be healthy.”
Melissa Peterson, a lobbyist for the Iowa State Education Association, said vaccination status is helpful because homeschooled students can opt into some courses and extracurricular activities offered by public schools.
“It’s important for us to know what immunizations that child has had,” she said.
Homeschooled students would not need to be taught science or social studies until middle school
Homeschooled elementary students would not have to be taught science and social studies classes, if the bill becomes law.
The bill strikes language requiring science and social studies be taught to all grade levels. Instead, the bill says students must be taught to students in sixth to 12th grade.
Students at all grade levels would need to be taught math, reading and language arts.
Buckton said she’s concerned about eliminating the requirement that students be taught science and social studies in elementary school.
“We have a shortage of medical professionals and kids can find that real excitement about science at the earlier ages,” she said. “And social studies, we have all kinds of bills about the importance of civics and civics engagement, adding that into elementary levels, so it seems inconsistent.”
Schools could not teach ‘gender neutral’ versions of world languages
The bill says, “the world language instruction shall not alter the world language to incorporate gender-neutral language if the world language being offered and taught utilizes a grammatical gender system.”
Gustoff said he’s heard from teachers in Iowa who claimed they were told to teach languages like Spanish by making up words to create a gender-neutral form, rather than the traditional articles of “el” and “la” or “un” and “una” to refer to nouns.
Keenan Crow, policy and advocacy director with the LGBTQ rights group One Iowa, said the group doesn’t believe teachers are doing that.
“It’s kind of baffling in its current draft format,” Crow said. “Because it seems to imply that teachers are being … required to make up words, like new words that don’t exist and aren’t in current usage already.”
Berry Stevens, a high school freshman in West Des Moines called the languages portion of the bill “disrespectful to both teachers and students.” Stevens, who uses they/them pronouns, said the requirement is “a blatant attack towards nonbinary and genderfluid Iowans, including myself.”
“Iowa’s teachers are trained professionals who can and should be trusted,” Stevens said. “They don’t need you to micromanage their curriculum.”
Ryan Behn, a lobbyist for The Family Leader, said his group supports the bill.
“God created male and female, feminine and masculine,” he said. “It’s okay if languages reflect that.”
Doubling the tuition and textbook tax credit
An earlier version of the bill would have doubled Iowa’s tuition and textbook tax credit, which currently provides a credit of up to 25% of the first $2,000 that families spend on tuition and textbooks for K-12 students.
The House Education Committee voted Wednesday to remove the section of the bill expanding the credit.
The tax credit is currently available to public and private school students as well as homeschool students.
(This story was updated to accurately reflect the most current information and the headline on this story was updated to better reflect the contents of the proposed bill.)
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
