Ed Klamfoth retired in 2024 after 36 years in public education in Iowa, the last sixteen as a superintendent. This column was first published in the Waverly Democrat.

I was recently asked to submit an article for the Waverly newspaper explaining school funding and how it works. To do so in a piece like this is a difficult task for several reasons, not the least of which are the great many nuances and details associated with the topic and the word limitation for this column. So to narrow things down a bit, I asked if there were specific questions I might address. There were, and I’ll try to answer those questions here.

One important note—there are many different “buckets” of money that schools receive. I am only addressing the General Fund in these responses.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

Author’s note: This is the same introduction I used for a post I wrote in 2020 after President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike on Iran.Unfortunately, it’s still relevant for this new war.

It was an Iowa night thick with humidity and lightning bugs. We’d gathered in a vacant lot to test our virgin manhood. I was 13 years old, and I was standing in a circle of friends watching as each skinny armed boy tied on overweight boxing gloves and met his opponent in the center of the circle.

No referee. No adult. Just a whole lot of testosterone mingling with nervous adolescent sweat.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

Because of his intimidating style, the legendary 1950s baseball pitcher Sal Maglie was known as “The Barber.” His brush-back pitches came sooooo close batters felt as if they were getting a shave.

Considering his nickname, it’s probably best that “The Barber” is no longer with us, lest he find himself in hot water if he made a cameo appearance at the College World Series in Omaha.

In a seemingly unrelated note, the Orpheum Theater in Omaha might want to rethink any plan to reprise last October’s performances of the opera, “The Barber of Seville,” especially if it intends again to picture Figaro on stage with a barber pole. 

Similarly, my friend Kurt should remain in Iowa, because if he ever moved to Wahoo or Ogallala, the barber chair in his family room could raise eyebrows of Nebraska officials.

Pete D’Alessandro is co-founder of Campaign in a Box, a national consulting firm that specializes in progressive and first-time candidates. He lives in Des Moines. While he is not currently working for a U.S. Senate candidate in Iowa, he previously did work for Nathan Sage.

I am not usually part of the opinion carousel in Democratic primaries—for a lot of reasons. But I’m making an exception because I heard from more people than I ever have, inquiring about what I would be doing on June 2 in the U.S. Senate primary. 

I start with a simple question: “What kind of candidate can rebuild trust with working people across this state?”

The simple answer is, not yet another Iowa Democrat cautiously depending on insider poll-tested talking points from Washington D.C. consultants and dark-money Independent Expenditure organizations influenced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

What we need is someone willing to fight plainly, directly, and unapologetically for ordinary people. Iowans who feel like the economy and political system has stopped working for them.

That’s why State Senator Zach Wahls earns my support for the United States Senate.

Steve Corbin is emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and a contributing columnist to 246 newspapers and 48 social media platforms in 45 states, who receives no remuneration, funding, or endorsement from any for-profit business, nonprofit organization, political action committee, or political party. 

Julie Roland published a compelling op-ed in the April 21 issue of The Fulcrum, titled “Hegseth, Trump and the desecration of the American Military.” Ms. Roland is a 10-year Lieutenant Commander for the U.S. Navy who was deployed as a helicopter pilot at the South China Sea and Persian Gulf.

While her research-based piece is focused on the changing secular aspect of our military, let’s explore how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firing of fifteen senior military officers may have on Department of Defense service employees and military’s readiness to protect America’s 348 million citizens.

Steve Dunn is a retired journalist who has self-published two books, about former State Senator Pat Deluhery’s political career and the history of professional baseball in Des Moines. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Blasts and Bunts.

As I wrap up another nine months of volunteering at an elementary school, I reflect on what the state of Iowa is doing to its once-admired public school system.

To put it simply, the Republican-controlled legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds are tearing apart K-12 public education in the name of parental choice.

Of course, parents have always had a choice of where they could send their kids to school. Most opted for public schools. Others preferred private schools if they could afford it.

David Russell is a retired teacher. He can be reached at russellisu@gmail.com. This essay first appeared in his Substack newsletter, The Front Burner and the Back.

We’ve been living with the Big Lie for the last five and a half years. And now we are living with the Big Cheat as well. Iowa MAGAs are going all in for rigging the midterms and 2026.

Because Iowa, for the first time in a decade, has a good chance to flip the governorship, a Senate seat, and at least two U.S. House districts, among others, this is the worst possible time to let down on defense or hesitate to go all out on offense to stop the steal.

Yes, I know Stop the Steal is a MAGA phrase. But the midterms will be another “projection election,” where Republicans scream that others are cheating to hide their own cheating. And it’s still an Orwellian world where their hypocritical calls for election integrity really mean election rigging.

Sami Scheetz is a Linn County Supervisor and formerly served as a state legislator.

Before State Representative Josh Turek was sworn in with me to the Iowa House in January 2023, there was no ramp leading to the well of the chamber. In the 179 years since Iowa became a state, no member of the legislature had ever needed one. Josh did. So a ramp was built.

A few months later, I watched a group of kids in wheelchairs roll down it and sit on the floor of the people’s house. It is still one of the most vivid and meaningful memories I have from my time in the legislature.

Former Des Moines Register assistant sports editor Ira Lacher writes about the games and business of sports for various newspapers and magazines.

I have embraced futbol — all right, “soccer” — from the time I was old enough to kick a ball. Since I could only kick it lousily as a kid, the best I could do was watch it, which there was plenty of in New York City during the Sixties and Seventies. 

There were the New York Skyliners, actually the Cerro club of Montevideo, Uruguay, one of the entire teams imported lock, stock, and shin guards from Europe and South America to populate the United Soccer Association (think of the initials). The rival and homegrown National Professional Soccer League featured the New York Generals playing teams such as the Tampa Bay Rowdies, whose memorable slogan was “Soccer is a kick in the grass.” 

David Elbert is a former business editor and columnist for the Des Moines Register. He now writes about local history for DSM Magzine. 

Paul Simon’s 1977 song “Slip Slidin’ Away” hit home the other day. It’s about a failing romance, although many believe the lyrics are a metaphor for the 1970s downside that followed euphoric times a decade earlier.

For me, “Slip Slidin’ Away” is what happened to Iowa, as our population, educational standards and health care systems slipped away, along with our news media and tolerance for others.

I wish I knew a solution. I don’t.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

At the risk of blurring the increasingly fuzzy line between church and state, here is a Gospel reading for public employees and elected officials, according to Matthew: 

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”

Unfortunately, it does not take much looking these days to see government leaders bedeviled by lousy optics. Perhaps it is a lack of vision or just a refusal to listen.

Either way, these officials are doing and saying things that leave the taxpayers who pay their salaries perplexed.

Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Summit Carbon Solutions announced on May 13 it is altering the route of its proposed pipeline across Iowa to help “accelerate progress” on the project.

In a new filing submitted to the Iowa Utilities Commission for approval, the company indicates it intends to move segments of the pipeline’s proposed route, which the company says will result in fewer miles of land, and fewer landowners, being affected by the project.

If approved, the changes would remove previously planned routes through Shelby, Pottawattamie, Montgomery, Adams, Page, Fremont, Mitchell, and Worth counties, while also reducing the miles of pipeline running through Crawford, Floyd, Sioux, and Dickinson counties.

Leland Searles has had a long interest in birding and wildflowers. He combines that with over fifteen years as a consultant in ecological assessment and restoration, along with graduate studies in environmental and psychological anthropology. His recent writing addresses some facet of ecology, often with awareness of social interests and power that shape our regard for the environment.

Triosteum: “having three pits [seeds] as hard as bone.” This genus of plants in the Caprifoliaceae family has six species, with three in North America and three in East Asia. Two occur in the Midwest: Orangefruit Horse Gentian (Triosteum aurantiacum), and Late Horse Gentian, Feverwort, or Tinker’s Weed (Triosteum perfoliatum, from the appearance of the stem perforating the leaves). In my experience, the last is the more common in Iowa.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

Recently we celebrated National Teacher Appreciation week. Business partners provided lunches. Schools purchased small gifts like sunglasses, cinnamon rolls, and key chains. Some parents scrambled to find unopened Christmas gifts of perfume or lotion, to re-gift to their child’s favorite teacher, and local media did feel good stories.

My guess is teachers loved those tokens of appreciation, because it doesn’t happen often, especially since they’ve just endured the never-ending slog between Christmas and Easter.

But even with the gifts and free food, many labor advocates criticize appreciation weeks, saying that “If a profession needs a specific week to feel valued, it often points to systemic issues with compensation, workload, and societal respect.”

Wayne Ford is the executive director of Wayne Ford Equity Impact Institute and co-Director of the Brown and Black Forums of America. He is a former member of the Iowa legislature (1997 through 2010) and the founder and former executive director of Urban Dreams.

More than a debate about one bill

Something important happened as Iowa lawmakers considered House File 2542, habitual offender legislation commonly referred to as a “three strikes” proposal.

Early versions of the legislation would have required 20-year sentences for a large number of repeat offenders. The final framework approved in the closing days of the session was significantly scaled back; legal analysts and attorneys noted that it would apply to fewer non-violent offenders and would preserve prosecutorial discretion.

That change did not happen in a vacuum.

During the legislative process, lawmakers publicly raised concerns regarding prison capacity, long-term correctional costs, racial disparities, and broader system impact. Requests were made for minority impact analysis, while fiscal and correctional projections became part of the public discussion. Whether individuals supported or opposed the legislation, the debate itself reflected something larger: policymakers were being asked to evaluate impact before implementation.

President Donald Trump got the ball rolling when he demanded that Texas adopt a new map creating five more Republican-held U.S. House seats. The U.S. Supreme Court escalated the redistricting “arms race” by blowing up what remains of the Voting Rights Act.

Since the summer of 2025, nine GOP-controlled states and two states with Democratic trifectas have either adopted new political maps or begun the redistricting process, seeking to give their party an advantage in this year’s Congressional races.

More states will likely draw new maps next year, including New York (where Democrats could net several U.S. House seats) and Indiana (where Trump-backed challengers just defeated most of the Republican legislators who declined to redistrict this cycle).

One red state that won’t join the gerrymandering stampede is Iowa, where legislators have completed their work for the year. Even if Republicans lose one or more Congressional races this November, they could not easily draw friendlier maps before 2028. And even if the majority party overhauled Iowa’s redistricting statute—which lays out the nonpartisan process—our state constitution makes it difficult to create four reliably red U.S. House districts.

Noah Gratias is a seventh generation Iowan from Waukee.

As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the distance between the founding ideals and modern realities often feels vast. The language of the founders is frequently invoked, yet sometimes it feels distant or abstract. In Iowa, however, one phrase has endured with clarity since the state’s founding: our state motto.

Things designed by committee are rarely remembered for their foresight. Yet a committee of three Iowa state senators selected a creed in 1847 that still inspires 180 years on: “Our liberties we prize, our rights we will maintain.” It strikes at the core of why our union was founded: for the love of liberty and the protection of inalienable rights. Folks across the political spectrum have invoked the motto since its adoption, because it captures the core principles of our country and its people.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

How fitting and ironic it is that—as we mark the 250^th anniversary of the July 4^th celebration of the birth of our nation—we also will mark the 250^th anniversary of the opening lines of Thomas Paine’s rallying cry: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

The reality in “these…times” of 2026 is that we can no longer have decent classroom, living room, or barroom discussions about who was, is or shall be the worst president in the nation’s history.

Donald J. Trump sweeps the field.

Sue Dinsdale is the Executive Director of Iowa Citizen Action Network and the State Lead for Health Care for America NOW.

This Mother’s Day, Senator Joni Ernst and her Republican colleagues are playing a sleight of hand when it comes to supporting families and children. Their rhetoric might sound like a corny greeting card, but their actions tell an ugly truth about their real intentions. Their agenda shifts resources away from the moms and kids who need them to advance a plan that further enriches the wealthy and corporations.

As a mother and a grandmother, it’s really hard to take when Vice President JD Vance wants Americans to have more children, and Ernst gives lip service to the importance of supporting growing families. Especially while virtually every action the GOP has taken since being in the majority makes parenthood harder by raising costs, cutting jobs and taking away health care.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column. This essay first appeared on Substack.

“Thou shalt not steal.” – Eighth Commandment
—God, as reported by Moses

Americans have rarely faced the facts about the role of national theft in the history of their nation. From the time of the first Europeans’ arrival in North America, the newcomers employed theft to secure their well-being. Europeans stole land and resources from native Americans for centuries. They stole free labor from imported African slaves and their descendants for 250 years.

Those facts are undeniable and thoroughly documented. They contributed mightily to securing the wealth and power of the United States as we know it today.

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but without those thefts from indigenous Americans and Black people, the United States would not have reached the level of prosperity that has enabled it to achieve all it has for Americans and others around the world.