The State of Iowa currently provides funding for half a day of preschool for four year olds. Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for governor, says the statewide voluntary preschool program should expand to a full day, for both three- and four-year-olds.
Sand says over half of the three- and four-year-olds in Iowa don’t attend preschool, partly because it’s unavailable or too expensive for their parents. The proposal is part of an affordability agenda Sand released Monday. He’s proposing a new state tax credit for the estimated 57-thousand low-income Iowans are the primary caregiver for an elderly or disabled spouse or relative. Sand would also sign a bill to put limits on utility service fees. And Sand pledges to find ways to reduce prescription drug costs.
Sand says the state should crack down on price gouging by drug companies and he’d appoint a Prescription Drugs Review Board to help Iowa negotiate lower prescription drug costs for life-saving medicine, like insulin. He’d ask the board to consider the possibility of importing generic prescription drugs from Canada to lower costs for Iowans.
In 2023, Texas began designing a program to get Canadian suppliers and wholesalers to ship lower-cost prescription medications into Texas, but has not yet gotten approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the initiative. The FDA did give Florida the go-ahead for a similar program, but Florida officials are still negotiating with Canadian manufacturers and distributors. Critics in Canada say their country’s supply of prescription medications would be depleted by exporting drugs to the U-S.
