DES MOINES, Iowa — The application for the 2024-25 Education Savings Account program will officially open at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The ESA program was first introduced last year when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the Students First Act into law. Under the act, students and their families are able to use taxpayer funds in order to cover private school costs.
Applications will be accepted until June 30th at 11:59 p.m.
Who is eligible to apply for an ESA?
Any student who was approved for an ESA last year will once again be eligible to apply in 2024.
Students entering kindergarten at an Iowa private school, or who attended public school in the previous year, are also eligible.
Income restrictions apply for current private school students seeking the state scholarship. The family's household income must be at or below 400% of the federal poverty guidelines to apply.
By the fall of 2025, these restrictions will expire and all K-12 students in Iowa will be eligible, regardless of income.
How is the program funded?
18,893 Iowa students were approved for an ESA by the Iowa Department of Education for the 2023-24 school year, receiving their own account with roughly $7,600 in taxpayer dollars.
Those funds can be used on private school tuition, fees and other related costs, like tutoring sessions and textbooks.
Originally, the Iowa Legislative Services Agency estimated a budget of $107.4 million, anticipating that 14,000 students would apply in the program's first year. The state ultimately received nearly 25,000 applications and approved $143.5 million.
That final total exceeded the initial budget estimate by roughly $36 million.
To make up for those additional costs, the governor's office said that additional funding was pulled from the state's general funds, which is where any unused money is returned to.