Des Moines — Iowa State Senator Herman Quirmbach released the following statement regarding State Auditor Rob Sand’s new report on the Iowa Department of Education’s contracting with Odyssey, the private company that manages individuals’ private-school voucher accounts.
“Senate Democrats knew the voucher scheme Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican legislators cooked up would take advantage of Iowa taxpayers,” Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said. “The auditor’s report released today reveals an alarming lack of transparency and accountability from the Department of Education when it comes to the proper stewarding of taxpayer funds.”
Quirmbach added, “Today we learn that Gov. Reynolds and her administration agreed a year ago to double the payments to Odyssey, the private firm administering the voucher program. The Reynolds administration agreed to the increased payments to Odyssey in July 2023 but did not disclose the required justification until this month.”
“It is bad enough that the voucher program is syphoning hundreds of millions of dollars out of our public schools, but now we find that the Reynolds administration low-balled the estimated payments to the private company running the program and hid the cost increase until the State Auditor forced the disclosure. Reynolds has broken faith with the public’s trust on both education and stewardship of taxpayers’ money,” Quirmbach concluded.
Quirmbach is the Ranking Member on the Senate Education Committee.