By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

State Auditor Rob Sand says it appears the State of Iowa spent nearly $260 million this past school year to cover tuition costs for K-12 students who would have attended a private school without the state subsidy.

Sand, a Democrat running for governor, and current Republican Governor Kim Reynolds have sparred over access to information about Iowa’s Education Savings Account program. During a news conference late this morning, Sand said the report he released today is based on publicly-available data on spending and enrollment before and after the program launched three years ago. Sand said the data suggests only 21% of the students attended a private school rather than their local public school because of the tuition assistance.

“What that means is we can assume 8,800 students were enrolled in the program because the program existed,” Sand said.

According to Sand’s report, there’s been a 25% increase in the number of private schools in the past three years, while at the same time the number of private school closures has increased by about 45%. “So we are showing vastly more private schools close and open,” Sand said. “In fact, at least two of them have closed and opened within the same school year, which obviously creates instability for any students who are enrolled as well as their families.”

Sand told reporters it appears just one of the new private schools that have opened went through the state accredidation process. “Most of the new schools are relying instead on the independent accredidation agencies approved by the Board of Education,” Sand said.

Governor Reynolds, in a written statement, accused Sand of “chasing headlines” and called the report “politics, not real oversight.” The Iowa Department of Education has released a statement as well, saying “it is baffling” the report “does not pertain” to an audit but appears, instead, to be a policy critique of the ESA program.