DES MOINES — More than 30,000 Iowa students have been approved for a state program to use state dollars to pay private school tuition in the upcoming school year, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Friday.

The numbers indicate an increase of more than 11,000 students from the 2023-24 school year. It’s about 10,000 more than the nonpartisan legislative services agency estimated would participate when the law was passed in 2023.

The Republican governor made the announcement at the annual Family Leadership Summit hosted by the conservative evangelical organization The Family Leader during a conversation with Betsy DeVos, the former U.S. secretary of education under then-President Donald Trump.

The state received 35,417 applicants for the program before the June 30 deadline, Reynolds’ spokesperson Kollin Crompton said. Applications are still being reviewed, but more than 30,000 have been approved so far.

Approved students will be able to use their full per-pupil state funding to pay for tuition at an accredited private school. Not all of those students may end up attending a private school with the funds. If a student does not attend a private school, the account is closed and the money remains with the state.

During the conference, DeVos praised Reynolds’ push to pass the education savings account program. Reynolds endorsed primary challengers to Republicans who opposed a narrower version of the plan in 2022, many of which lost their primaries to candidates who supported the program.

“She really did set a new tone when taking on members of her party who refused to make that step to give families more power,” DeVos said. “And it was not without a lot of difficulty and a lot of political capital, shall we say. But clearly she knew where her constituents in Iowa were and are on that subject.”

Reynolds said the COVID-19 pandemic, when instruction was moved primarily online and parents had a closer view of educational instruction, solidified her support for private school choice initiatives.

She said the program will give families who otherwise could not afford private school the opportunity to send students to a school that best fits their needs. About 60 percent of the approved applicants last year already attended private school, while 40 percent were public school students.

“We had school choice prior to this … but it was only if you had the means to do that,” Reynolds said. “And that is just not right. It’s not fair. And so I forged on a mission to get things turned around.”

Reynolds said she believes her education policies will improve public schools as well as private schools. She pointed to open enrollment changes, a teacher salary increase and literacy standards passed in this year’s legislative session as examples of improvements to public schools under her administration.

The education savings account program was Reynolds’ top policy priority in 2023, and one of several education changes she has pursued in recent years as governor. The program cost the state about $128 million last budget year.

This year, Reynolds signed a bill into law that overhauls the state’s area education agencies, which provide special education support to Iowa school districts. The law also increased the minimum teacher salary to $50,000 by the 2025-26 school year.

Under the law, funding that now goes to the AEAs will eventually go directly to school districts, and they will need to contract with the AEAs to provide special education services. AEA funding for media and other education services will go directly to the school districts, which can spend it on any general fund purpose outside the AEAs.

Reynolds calls DeVos role model

DeVos served as the U.S. secretary of education under Trump from 2017 to 2021. She is a strong proponent of private school choice policies and has led several conservative education think tanks.

Reynolds said DeVos has been a role model for her and said she was inspired by DeVos’ work as secretary of education.

“You never backed away from your beliefs or what you went there to do and I thought if she can do this at the federal level, I could do this at the state level,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds in May denied suggestions, first reported in the Daily Caller, that she was interested in serving as secretary of education in a potential second Trump administration.

The conservative outlet attributed an unnamed spokesperson who said Reynolds may be interested in the position. But Reynolds said the report “mistook the way I talk about education” as being interested in the job.

“I am passionate about education. I’m proud of what we’re doing,” Reynolds said at the time. “I mean, it started with STEM, it started with registered apprenticeship programs, literacy, parental choice. So I’ve got a lot of work to do as governor.”

Democrats have opposed many of Reynolds’ education policies, saying they will weaken public schools and funnel taxpayer dollars to unaccountable private institutions. In a statement, Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said the Iowa GOP has gone too far in its education policies.

“Iowans are sick and tired of politics. Governor Reynolds celebrating her voucher bill with billionaire Betsy DeVos and the special interests today is a huge reason why,” Konfrst said in a statement. “Iowans overwhelmingly oppose vouchers because public money is for public education. They don’t want more public schools to close and they sure don’t want their kids to lose access to special education services.”