CLINTON, Iowa — The Clinton Community School District is making budget cuts this coming school year, and district officials said that's partly due to students opting for private schools under Iowa's school choice voucher program.
According to Superintendent Gary DeLacy, 37 Clinton students will either enter kindergarten in private school or are leaving public schools. That's about 1% of the district's population.
The majority are going to Prince of Peace Catholic School, with the help of Iowa's Education Savings Account (ESA) program, which uses state funds to help pay private school tuition.
Iowa public schools receive about $7,800 for every student enrolled. They also receive about $1,200 for each student using an ESA in their district.
As the Clinton CSD loses 37 students, it also loses out on an estimated $240,000 in state funds.
DeLacy said the change shouldn't affect the remaining 3,200 public students, but there will still have to be staffing cuts.
"So we’ve used attrition for the most part, people that were leaving anyways, and we just chose not to replace certain positions to live within our means," DeLacy said. "So we did those kinds of things without quote-unquote 'pink slipping.'"
Even with position cuts, he said there's still a teacher shortage in the state. The district would move staff around if needed so they can stay employed.
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