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 

Game of Thrones fans remember the ominous warning, “Winter is coming.” It was about White Walkers and the army of the undead invading. Winter is coming in Iowa too. There aren’t White Walkers and the undead lurking behind Iowa snow drifts, but the annual legislative Winter Dance Party under the Golden Dome will begin soon.

It might not provoke White Walker terror, but Iowa educators feel a chill down their spines thinking about the Iowa legislature convening on January 12. What’s the next attack? How will we cope? Will they increase state funding for schools above the inflation rate?

Like all middle school dances, they’ll be a division of dancers. But this dance won’t be girls on one side boys on the other. Democrats will cluster together in the hopes of a little warmth, while Republicans puff up their chests, strut around to call the tunes. Bipartisan dancing will be sadly sparse.

Here are a few things chaperones, also known as voters, need to monitor to keep the state safe.

It’s no secret property tax reform is a priority for Republicans. It was last session too, until leadership discovered just how complicated it was. Historically Iowa has tied essential services to property tax revenue. 

It’s been that way for decades because Iowa has more land than people. It made good political sense to tie essential service funding to a consistent and predictable source. Without a reliable funding source for schools, towns, and counties they’d dry up and blow away.

Tinkering around the edges of property tax reform also has serious implications and will require some heavy lifting. Republican proposals like freezing property tax increases for those 65 or older are great for stump speeches, but doing that while protecting essential revenue is complicated and has stumped lawmakers so far.

Before limiting property tax increases by age, politicians should remember the last time they were blinded by all the white hair at church and at ball games. Iowa is old. Any politician who talks about cutting property taxes without talking about protecting schools, towns, and county revenue, is solving one problem and creating another.

Also, State Auditor Rob Sand’s idea for charging out of state landowners a higher property tax rate may not pass legal muster.

The DOGE recommendations will also be tempting for legislators to act on. They shouldn’t. Two of those recommendations would send educators scrambling for exits. I doubt the majority party will try to totally revamp the Iowa Public Employee Retirement system (IPERS).   

Even DOGE task force members ran from their own recommendations. Terry Lutz, the Taxpayer Investment Subcommittee chair said, “The recommendation was misrepresented and misunderstood.” But the recommendation (to switch from a defined benefit pension system to a defined contribution system for new public employees) was clear, and so was the public outrage.  

Instead, there may be legislative meddling around the edges of IPERS, and that could be dangerous.  Right now, an investment board manages IPERS. Some state legislators serve on that board as non-voting members. Any legislative meddling with investments, number of years to vest, or the formula for full retirement could break IPERS, a system that’s not broken.

The other DOGE recommendation related to public education is equally harmful. That one was on merit pay for teaching. Merit pay schemes have been proposed for decades and some have been implemented. They all failed because students aren’t a product, and teachers aren’t assembly line workers. Trying to measure teacher merit with standardized tests is like measuring a room with a broken tape measure. It won’t measure correctly, and everyone will hate the outcome.

Chaperones need to keep a close eye on the legislative dancers from both parties and call them out if they’re dancing dangerously. Iowa is famous for a 1959 Winter Dance Party that tragically became “The Day the Music Died.” Let’s guard against tragedy coming from this year’s legislative dance.