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we'll start with your students. First act has been something you've been trying to pass *** version of it at least for three years. Why is this such an important priority to you? Well, I think it's really important that we're setting every child up for an opportunity to be successful. And I've said all along, it is critical that we have *** strong public education system. It's the foundation of education, it's the foundation of our state and our economy and society. But it's equally as important. I think that parents have the opportunity to make sure their child is in the best environment that sets them up to be the best that they can be and thrive and parents are the best ones to make that decision. And I just, it shouldn't be for only for those that have the resources to do that. I believe that every parent should have that option. I also believe it's not *** zero sum game. I think it will enhance education overall. But there are people that continue to say, you know, in this plan at least there's $7,598. There are people that say that's money that would have gone to Public school. But this program is incentivizing kids to leave the public school system and for that money to leave and gives public schools money. But $1,200 instead of the $7600 that they would have received. What do you tell them there's *** lot of misinformation in that. And that's, you know, I kind of talked about the hysteria in the condition of the state. So people fear the unknown and they tend to throw out *** lot of information that's not. Effectual and *** lot of that is included in some of the things that we're hearing. First of all, it's not going to impact the public school system. We're putting new money into the program. I'm really proud of the additional funds. It's over $200 million 56% of our state budget goes to education. We have put over *** billion dollars of new money into K 12 education, uh since fiscal year 2012, we've put more money in every year. So, you know, I'm not sure I've said this many times. I don't know what is the magic number. All they ever hear is more money, more money, more money. So right now it's 56% of our state budget. Is it 65%. Is it 75%? And then when you take *** look at what other states are doing? So I gave Florida as an example in the condition of the state, they actually spend 2000 less per student than we do. And they're scoring way, way better than we are on in math and reading. So it's not just about the money, we need to take *** look at other things. I believe this will, um, you know, help all of us be better. And ultimately the goal is to make sure that we're getting the best possible outcomes for, for the kids. And that's where we need to be focused. There are people that say without this program, there likely would have been public school students that would stay in their public school and that 7598 would go to that public schools and public school won't be getting that if they're not teaching the child either. So they're not using, you know, they're not using the resources, the students not going to be there. It just comes down to the fact that I'm not going to have, I don't think the school should be deciding the best environment. I think the parents should, whether it's bullying, whether it's um, you know, religious, Um, things that matter to them, I think the parents should be deciding. And here's the other, you know, this is the other piece kind of the, the scare tactic that's out there. People like to say that they think that it's gonna destroy the public school system. The majority of the students are gonna leave and there's no data there to support that Florida has been doing some type of school choice for, since the early 2000s, and right now, only 3% of the entire student population in Florida. The parents have made the decision to not go to *** public school, but to go to *** private school. Arizona is another great example that's been doing it for years. I'm really pretty aggressive over the last eight years. And right now, only 5% of their population, student population has, the parents have made the decision to move from public to private. So, you know, you're the majority of parents are happy with where with the education that they're receiving from their public school. But, but for those that just believe this isn't right for my child, you know, maybe they want to do something special in academics. It's kind of like the charter school. It's very similar to that, we have charter schools that are stem focused, We have private schools that maybe are *** little bit more focused on religious, we have religion, we have private schools that are maybe *** little bit more focused on *** stem. It's, that's kind of that same philosophy. And if you, you have *** child that, that you believe can be better or you know, excel, uh, in ***, in *** different environment than as *** parent, you should be able to have that choice and it shouldn't just be for those that have the resources to do it. That's just not right. There are people that say, you know, that I'm sure come to you and say my child's need is not being met in the public school system. And that's kind of the what you laid out right there, why create *** program to help that student get that need met elsewhere instead of spending money to solve that need in the post. It's an option. It's all about options. It's competition. It's *** good thing. It's just, you know, it's, it's, there's options already that exist. You know, we use, it's, it's similar to what we do with childcare. You know, private money goes into our taxpayer dollars, goes into preschool choices and into higher education. This is *** similar model. We do it for preschool, we do it for with the Iowa tuition grants for higher education. But for some reason we've decided that K through 12, they shouldn't have that option. And so, um, there's presidents for it, it already exist. Those options already exist. It's just not everybody has the opportunity to take advantage of that, especially if they don't have the resources to do it. And I think that's fundamentally wrong. This version that you've proposed this year is *** lot more expansive than than the last two years. You've proposed some some larger changes in this bill. One of those being, there's no income requirements once this plan is fully phased in, right? Why, why make that change? Because I think we made that decision *** long time ago, um, years ago we decided that we were going to fund public education regardless of income means. So I think it's basically the status quo. Um, I believe that that that decision was made *** long time ago. And the other part of that is if we take *** look, you know, often times we talk about the cliff when it comes to daycare, Sometimes that can be really restrictive on parents advancing or trying to take *** promotion because then it kicks them up *** little bit and the with their income and throws them out of the, their ability to get help with child care. And I don't want to create that similar type of system. Um I believe that was decided *** long time ago. I don't want to mimic that and I think it's the right thing to do. Another big change. There's no cap on the number of education savings accounts that the state will fund. Um Some people have said, you know, how does that fit into the Republican plan of conservative budgeting? If there's, there's no limit on the number going forward that we've ran all kinds of scenarios. We've tested this, we've done it with *** recession without *** recession. We're able to do it. We're able to put the new money into the program. We still have significant balances left, not only in the as *** surplus, but also in the taxpayer trust fund. I've made it very clear that another one of my priorities is the fact that I want to continue to cut taxes so that we can continue to be competitive as *** state. Um and we can allow hard working Iowans to keep more of their money. And so we're able to not only provide educational choice for parents, honor our priorities and we'll be able to continue to reduce the tax burden burden on Iowans moving forward. Another thing I've heard from some homeschooling families as they're wondering why homeschoolers weren't included in this plan. Yeah, well, you know, you gotta cut it off someplace. And so one of the reasons, you know, we set this up, we did *** three year phase into your point. Exactly. So we could kind of monitor what some of those numbers look like and we could be fiscally responsible as we move through it with the projections that we put in place. We want to set up *** platform that we can use to transfer the money, make sure that it's accountable um and that we are able to do it as seamlessly as possible and so we need to get that set up with the infrastructure that we have in place with the existing bill and then that's something that future legislators can, legislators can take *** look at moving forward. But right now this is *** really, I'm really proud of the bill. Um You'll see *** lot of other states um emulate what we've done in in Iowa if we're able to get this across the finish line, it'll set the bar. I've already heard several of my colleagues that are looking at doing similar things. So this isn't, you know, you're gonna see more and more states across the country really move in this direction because, you know, they are just looking at it differently. We're not looking at *** system, we're looking at Children and kids and funding them and making sure that we're doing everything that we can to make sure that they have uh an opportunity to succeed in *** great education. And so I think, you know, the bill that we've put together not only supports essays, but it also addresses comprehensive education reform and that was *** goal of mine as well. One thing is that it says, the Department of Education can't modify standards for how private schools accept who they choose, who to accept and who not to accept. What would you tell *** family who maybe wants to use an education savings account? But they can't because of private. Well, I just don't think there's *** lot of that happening out there. I think, you know, they've set up *** system, sometimes it's teacher restraints. Same thing some of the other school districts are dealing with, but *** parent has decided they're not receiving, um their child is not receiving the specific needs that they need in the existing public school system. And so they're gonna go and start meeting with private schools or other options that they may have and they'll sit down with um, the, the superintendent of the private school and they'll have those conversations, but you know, I think they'd like us to believe that they're rejecting students. That's just not the case. They want to sit down with the family and they want to make sure that they can meet their needs, that they have the resources to provide the quality education that parent is looking for, so they don't want to bring that parent in and then not be able to have the resources to provide the services that they need. So um you know, that's *** conversation that takes place when *** parent sets down with that private institution, and then they'll make *** decision if that's where they believe that their child should go or not. Now. I want to talk just *** little bit about if this plan would pass how how it would be administered. So we've already issued an R. F. I there's several companies, *** couple companies two or three out there that do that right now. So we'll have *** third party platform that will put in place that will really handle um you know, the transferring of the funds, they'll make sure that it's um that were held there held accountable. And they'll do audit purpose audit processes, will be included in the RFP when we finally get to that point. So we're out for information right now to see what's available and then we'll fine tune uh the request and the expectations that we have uh for the company going forward and that will be included in the RFP. Talking about some of the other states that that implement this plan, some of them have in their own bills requirements for what would trigger an audit or we'll go through that same, we'll go through that same process. So there will be requirements for accountability and transparency, accountability as far as the funds transferring if that's what you're talking about. Yeah that'll be built into the RFP into the requirements that we put forward before we sign off on that company providing those services. Will that be something that lawmakers see before they vote yes or no on *** bill? No? Okay. So that would come I mean they know that an RFP is out. Our R. F. I excuse me is out right now um and well that would be included in the conversation that we have with them but but we've had my team has already been working with the different companies in different states that are providing that so we have *** good sense of what's out there, what's available and then we just need to fine tune it to what we need for the needs of Iowa's bill process, what it would cost to contract out to third. I don't know yet what that is but we need, you know that's *** component that we need and so that's some of the stuff that we'll, you know, we'll be able to give you that information once we go through the RFP process. Talking about some other pieces of your education reform package. I just want to read this so I don't get it wrong. Um, you're, the governor's office has said that pieces of that education package would include defining parents rights in law, proposing to require transparency and set boundaries to protect Iowa's Children from woke indoctrination. Could you first just explain what you mean by woke indoctrination? Well, you know, I think we've passed *** couple bills to just make sure that we're not teaching *** critical race theory that we're not teaching students to hate this country and to judge people on the color of their skin, but to judge them on their character. Um, I haven't dropped my parental rights bill yet, we're still working on it. It should be, we should be dropping that within the next couple of weeks, we've really been focused on um, the educational savings piece of our educational reform. Would private schools that receive education savings account funds be included in different requirements or boundaries that are set forth by transparency bills. Um, you know, they're held to, you know, their, most of this would deal with public schools with public schools right now. Um um, so, you know, they would just be public public schools, Is there any other mechanism to, I mean, if again, is not funding systems, but funding kids shouldn't, all, every education system then be held to the same standards. Well, they are held to standards. They're an accredited private school, so they're accredited by the Department of Education, ultimately, so they have various standards that they have to meet. But again, it's the parent that's going to be making that decision. So if they feel that this school doesn't meet their expectations or what they're looking for, that, they're not going to transfer their child there. So I'm gonna trust parents to do the research to, uh, you know, to make the decision of what environment is best for their Children. I don't think, you know, we should be doing that. I don't think schools should be doing that. I think parents should be the ones that are making that decision. So ultimately, all of all of schools, whether it's *** private or public, should be held accountable to the parents. And certainly that's the case with the private schools too.