Republican’s Battle For Iowa House District 88 Seat
Helena Hays and Dustin Hite are seeking the Republican nomination for Iowa House District 88
Oskaloosa, Iowa – On Friday evening, the Mahaska County Republican Party hosted a forum that featured questions from a moderator.
The forum wasn’t a traditional back and forth between the candidates but instead featured a timed response, with the moderator keeping time.
Each candidate was allowed a short period to introduce themselves, and then the first question focused on school choice.
Hite, the incumbent Republican, has been criticized for his concerns about the bill, and he told those at the forum that he is “all for school choice.”
During his time in the Iowa House, he said that there had been an expansion of charter schools within the state and expanded scholarship programs for low-income families to attend private schools.
He said he also ran the bill to remove voluntary diversity plans, allowing students to enroll in different schools in some districts.
Hite said he believed the question was about the bill being brought forward by Governor Kim Reynolds regarding ESA’s or Education Savings Accounts.
“I have been very open and honest about this; I don’t know that’s the right avenue for the school choice in the State of Iowa,” said Hite. “I think the right avenue, and what I have proposed, is to work with the tuition and textbook tax credit and expand that.”
Hite said expanding that program versus the ESA’s is the concern about what will happen to private schools when those schools start to accept public money and any potential requirements that may come with those dollars.
“I think there are ways that we can get there that don’t have those same downsides, and that’s why I have supported the things that I have done that have expanded school choice in the State of Iowa and will continue to support those.
Hite’s challenger, Republican Helena Hayes, says she is also in favor of school choice and offered to clarify what that statement means. “It means supporting ESA’s. ESA’s are educational savings accounts. That means you’re willing to fund the child and not the institution.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t believe that that’s been one of the things that my incumbent has been supporting. He’s been very clear on that. School choice, you have to include the ESA; you have to include the funding in that,” said Hayes. “So please, please be careful when people say they are for school choice; what do they actually mean about that.”
“So it means that the funding follows the students and not the institution,” Hayes added. “So I clearly am always going to stand up for parents and what a parent finds is the right thing for their child, if they find that they’re in a school district that is not helpful to their child, is not assisting them in the way that they know can be done, and they need to find another public or private or whatever institution that funds should be able to follow with that child without any criteria.”
Hayes said that Hites point of the money potentially being a threat to a private school, and she stated that she’s researched the issues and says that the current public dollars private schools may be receiving “and it has not harmed the private institution.”
Hayes said that Hite’s one of the reason’s the house is in gridlock because he won’t support the governor’s bill on school choice.
The primary in Iowa will be on June 7th, 2022. You can visit our previous article, “New Voter Polling Locations May Impact Mahaska County Voters” for more information.
