Rob Sand’s Means Test Misses the Point
Sand says Iowa should stop giving ESAs to the “wealthiest families.” His proposed starting point would draw the line at $99,000 for a family of four.
Rob Sand wants to bring back an income test for Iowa’s Students First Education Savings Account program.
During the June 5 edition of Iowa Press, Sand said:
“We shouldn’t be giving private school vouchers to the wealthiest families in the state of Iowa, who are already sending their kids to private school anyway and making no sacrifice financially in order to do so.
“We have a budget that’s upside down, and we are paying people to do a thing they were going to do anyway. That makes no fiscal sense whatsoever.”
Kay Henderson asked: “So, what is the income cutoff you would suggest?”
Sand replied: “I’m open to a conversation on that. I would start at the same level that they had this at for the first year.”
That first-year level was 300 percent of the federal poverty guideline for students already attending a nonpublic school. Kindergarten students and students transferring from public schools were eligible regardless of income.
In 2023, 300 percent of the poverty guideline was $90,000 for a family of four.
In 2026, it is $99,000.
Who are Iowa’s ‘wealthiest families’?
Using the 2026 federal guidelines, 300 percent of poverty works out to:
$64,920 for a two-person household
$81,960 for three
$99,000 for four
$116,040 for five
$133,080 for six
Those are the numbers behind Sand’s rhetoric about Iowa’s “wealthiest families.”
A married couple with two children earning $100,000 would be over the line. So would a family of six earning $134,000.
They are not poor. But describing them as among Iowa’s wealthiest families is a stretch.
There is an obvious political advantage to talking about “the wealthiest families” rather than saying a family of four earning $100,000 should lose access to an ESA. The first conjures up millionaires. The second sounds a lot more like middle-class Iowa.
If Sand wants a means test, he should defend the actual cutoff.
The cliff is arbitrary
Means tests create winners and losers among families whose financial situations may be nearly identical.
A family of four earning $98,900 could qualify under a 300-percent standard. A family earning $99,100 could be excluded.
What makes the second family less deserving of educational choice?
Two hundred dollars?
The same problem grows with larger families. A household of six earning just over $133,000 could be classified as too wealthy for assistance while trying to pay tuition for several children.
There will always be a line with a means-tested program. But Sand should explain why that line is fair instead of hiding it behind language about wealthy families.
Paying tuition does not mean there was no sacrifice
Sand also claimed that families already sending their children to private schools were “making no sacrifice financially in order to do so.”
He cannot possibly know that.
Parents may have driven older cars, skipped vacations, worked extra hours, relied on financial aid or accepted help from grandparents. They may simply have decided that their child’s education was worth giving up other things.
The fact that they managed to pay tuition does not prove tuition was painless.
In fact, prior enrollment may demonstrate the opposite. These parents were willing to bear the cost before Iowa offered them an ESA.
Sand’s approach would penalize families for having sacrificed successfully.
We do not means-test public education
Iowa does not check family income before educating a child in a public school.
A child whose parents earn $300,000 receives a publicly funded education just as a child whose parents earn $60,000 does. We do not tell higher-income parents that they can afford to educate their children themselves.
The Students First program rests on the principle that Iowa can support a child’s education when parents choose an accredited nonpublic school as well.
Its purpose is to expand access to those schools. That includes helping families enter a nonpublic school, but it also means helping them stay there.
Sand is correct that providing an ESA to a student whose parents otherwise would have paid tuition themselves creates a state expense that did not previously exist.
That is a legitimate budget argument.
It does not justify calling a family earning slightly more than $99,000 one of Iowa’s wealthiest. It certainly does not prove that parents already paying tuition made “no sacrifice.”
Sand wants to return to means testing. Then he should defend what that would actually mean.
Why should a family of four lose access because its income crossed $99,000?
Why should a family of six earning $134,000 be treated as too wealthy?
Those are the numbers Iowa voters should hear when Sand talks about cutting off ESAs for “the wealthiest families.”