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 

Some mysteries are difficult to solve. For example, in this classic story problem: “Train A leaves from Chicago for Toledo at 70 miles an hour. Simultaneously Train B leaves Toledo for Chicago at 60 miles per hour. The distance between the cities is 260 miles when do they meet?”

Sure, there’s a mathematical formula to figure it out, but as a distracted 7^th grader I never conquered it.  There were just too many other important questions needing answers. Why is the Chicago train faster? Is there a headwind between Toledo and Chicago or are trains just built slower in Ohio? Who are the people traveling? Why do we want those trains to meet? Are they on the same track? If so, isn’t that the real story and the real problem?

After reading about the recent Iowa Republican gubernatorial primary debate, there’s no mystery about why Iowa’s public schools are at risk. Four of the five contenders are sticking to an old formula that’s put Iowa public schools in jeopardy and caused teachers and future teachers to look for an exit.

The fifth candidate, U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra, the apparent front-runner, has strangely become Iowa’s own Boo Radley by so far skipping all debates and scheduling few public town halls.

Here’s the formula that solves the mystery of why Iowa public schools are at high risk and the one I saw the candidates doubling down on. 

Legislative meddling + chronic underfunding + public schools as a culture war weapon + unregulated private school vouchers = Iowa public schools at high risk.

Here’s a few examples of what the candidates said.

Adam Steen credited “school choice” for creating competition and allowing parents to choose where kids are going. “We do not have a funding problem within our public schools. We have a problem with ideology and requirements being pushed down upon our kids in public schools that are not right, that are downright evil, and they need to be wiped away.”

Zach Lahn said, “We need to wipe out the Board of Educational Examiners and put in place people that will hold teachers accountable for when they indoctrinate our kids, suspend their licenses or permanently take their licenses if we have to.”

State Representative Eddie Andrews highlighted his work on the school voucher program and parental rights legislation and indicated most everyone agrees on those rights. 

Former State Representative Brad Sherman said he fully supports Iowa’s Education Savings Accounts for private tuition. He added, “I think we need to expand it and, in some fashion, make it even available to homeschoolers if they want that—some homeschoolers don’t.”

Feenstra has released press statements saying, “Schools should focus on reading, writing, and math, rather than DEI and other radical ideologies.”

The unregulated private school vouchers are one reason Iowa is on track to spend more than $1 billion more than the state collects in revenue this fiscal year. Although none of the candidates specified which parents should run public schools, a good guess would be parents who agree with The Moms for Liberty, a group holding a narrow MAGA world view

These candidates seem oblivious to the idea that public schools aren’t designed for a few chosen parents to decide what’s taught. Public schools need to be a place where students learn critical thinking skills, which will help them participate in a free society.

They favor private over public schools, even though 91.3 percent of Iowa students attend public schools, and they want to intensify the culture wars that divide us.

There was no recognition that public schools are starved for funding because schools have been funded under inflation for over a decade. This year the legislature is set to underfund again, with Iowa Senate Republicans advancing a 1.75 percent increase in state aid per pupil.

Most Iowans are sick of having their public schools used as a weapon. They want bipartisan support for schools. Voting for any of these candidates wouldn’t be a conservative vote. It would be a reckless one.

Top images are screenshots from the official video of the Moms for Liberty debate on January 27.