Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, where Burns resides.

Carmen Jungbluth drove from Boone to eastern Iowa on October 1 to hear two pioneers of school desegregation from the American South speak in Muscatine to a rapt crowd of 120. It was the lead-off event in a three-day tour of Iowa dedicated to barrier-breaking events that civil rights icons Dr. Leona Tate and Carlotta Walls LaNier described in both historic and urgent terms.

Carlotta Walls LaNier (left) with Dr. Leona Tate at the Muscatine event (photo by Douglas Burns)

Nick Covington is an Iowa parent who taught high school social studies for ten years.

The culture war battles we fight over our public schools are fundamentally disagreements about American values: what does it mean to be an American, and in whose image do we build our public schools?

“When Americans start fighting over their schools, you can be fairly sure of one thing: it probably isn’t really about school.”

— Jennifer Berkshire & Jack Schneider,

The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual

From working as Assistant Secretary of Education in the George H.W. Bush administration to laying the foundation of the modern conservative education reform movement, Diane Ravitch—a one-time champion of No Child Left Behind—spent most of her life as a Republican with conservative values. The story of her life, as told in her 2025 memoir, is the story of the American Century. As today’s culture war on “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” targets diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, Ravitch’s memoir makes a powerful case study for teaching these core American values.

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. 

You would think a school district readily knows its A-B-C’s.

Not the Des Moines Public Schools — at least not when informing the public what its 6,600 employees were paid during the academic year that ended June 30.

Yes, grade school teachers still call roll in alphabetical order. And next spring’s high school graduates will walk across the stage as their names are announced, starting with the A’s and moving through to the Z’s.

But when publishing a list of its employees in July and how much taxpayers paid each one, the Des Moines Public Schools’ alphabet started with Tiara S. Ziegler. Next was Pia Marcell Stites, and the list continued in an anything-but-organized manner.

Dan Piller was a business reporter for more than four decades, working for the Des Moines Register and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He covered the oil and gas industry while in Texas and was the Register’s agriculture reporter before his retirement in 2013. He lives in Ankeny.

A visitor to Iowa’s two largest university campuses might see the expanded football stadiums complete with private luxury suites whose games attract billion-dollar television contracts, gleaming indoor practice facilities and athlete residences, dining halls and training centers that would rival a fine resort. And they might well wonder why anyone would think Congress needs to pass a “Protect College Sports Act.”

It turns out that college sports needs to be saved from itself. The culprit is that old bogey; money.

Why some want Congress involved with college sports

The 69 universities in the so-called “power conferences” that call themselves “big time” apparently don’t have a clue about how to govern themselves, despite their location on campuses that hold what are supposedly our best minds. Where private, for profit professional sports have endured their various crises with strongmen commissioners, college sports long has long been run by parochial, oligarchical interests that have resisted central control.

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

Iowa’s long history of low wages is producing a crisis that state officials either can’t see or choose to ignore. The extent of the damage can be seen in a study commissioned last December for the Iowa Department of Education.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch revealed last month that officials who commissioned the report expected it would support their efforts to persuade lawmakers that four-year degrees should be added at Iowa’s two-year community colleges.

Instead, “The study attributes workforce shortages to the business climate, not the higher education system,” wrote Dispatch reporter Brooklyn Draisey.

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 

Long before Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) establishing special education in public schools, there were gifted teachers who recognized how to help struggling students learn. 

I was one of those students.

My early elementary teachers believed in oral reading for fluency. I could see the lips of my fellow “slow readers” silently counting the number of paragraphs to find which one they’d be reading out loud. They silently practiced sounding out each word. That didn’t work for me. I was also a slow math student and often miscounted which paragraph was mine.

Brooklyn Draisey is a Report for America corps member working for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this story first appeared. To read the full report, scroll to the end of this article.

Iowa’s community colleges told lawmakers this year that portions of Iowa are lacking access to a higher education and one solution to eliminate “education deserts” is to offer bachelor’s degrees at their institutions. Private colleges pushed back against this premise, disagreeing about the perceived need.

A state-commissioned study received by the Iowa Department of Education last month, but not released until now, says the vast majority of the state is in reach of higher education resources, and that Iowa’s colleges and universities are rising to meet student and workforce needs. The study attributes workforce shortages to the business climate, not the higher education system. But community colleges argue the study misidentifies higher education deserts and says the state could still benefit from four-year degree programs at their schools.

Parties on opposite sides of the debate on whether Iowa’s higher education institutions are adequately meeting student and workforce demand had different takeaways from the report that maps out degree demand and access, though both agree the public and state officials would benefit from seeing it and adapting its recommendations.

“Higher Education and Workforce Alignment in Iowa: Final Report” was prepared for the department of education by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) after the department contracted the nonprofit consulting organization in December, according to the report. It is dated March 6. The Iowa Capital Dispatch obtained the report on July 23 through a public records request.

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 

School lunches were a minefield for a picky eater like me. Our rural school was blessed with dedicated elementary teachers who ranked proper nutrition equal to reading, writing, and arithmetic.   

Thanks to those teachers, long before I negotiated wages, benefits and language for educators, I bargained literally under the table trades for peanut butter sandwiches and extra homemade cookies.

Trading food was forbidden by the lunch wardens, and a few times I was caught, tried, convicted, and forced to eat my attempted trade. One memorable time was when I was caught trying to palm-off stewed tomatoes.

Robin Opsahl covers the state legislature and politics for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Many of the laws advanced during the 2026 legislative session took effect July 1, including measures restricting access to abortion-inducing medication, increasing the speed limit on two-lane highways and limiting future governors’ powers during public health and disaster emergencies.

July 1, the beginning of the state’s fiscal year, is the default date for new laws to be enacted, unless otherwise specified.

Several measures passed this session went into effect immediately, including laws banning public entities from hosting warrant resolution clinics and shifting some K-12 funding from public to charter schools to follow students. Other new laws have a different start date specified. For example, the 5-cent tax on vapes and alternative nicotine products will go into effect January 1, 2027.

Here’s a look at some of Iowa’s new laws that took effect July 1:

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 

The heavy summer air almost suffocated 10-year-old me as I shuffled into the dark woods clutching an open bag. My older friends coaxed me into a snipe hunt. They barely suppressed giggles as they explained I’d have to be patient, and a flashlight would scare the snipe away. 

I stood shaking with an open bag. My friends evaporated into the night. I hadn’t asked the right questions. I trusted them. Things weren’t the same as they appeared.

I was left holding the bag.

With an election approaching, voters need to ask the hard questions, or we’ll all be left holding the bag and the unfunny joke will be on us. Here are some questions for Zach Lahn, the Republican nominee for governor.

Nick Covington is an Iowa parent who taught high school social studies for ten years.

Iowans today find their rights limited by private, partisan, and parochial interests, where the in-group gets the freedom to flourish and the out-group is free to leave.

State logo and slogan adopted by the Reynolds administration in 2023

Iowa Republican candidates and elected officials have been quick to claim the mantle of “culture” and “heritage” in our state. Back in February, then Iowa Republican gubernatorial candidate, Zach Lahn told Tucker Carlson, “the primary catalyst for me doing this was I believe we are losing our culture and our heritage as a people. That’s my honest belief…Are the traditions and the heritage and the value[s] of our ancestors important to us?”

Noah Gratias is an Iowa State alum from Waukee.

Whether in political debates, Bleeding Heartland essays, or everyday conversations, the idea that Iowa is in decline is frequently invoked. Many Iowans worry about brain drain, water quality, health care access, and the job market.

Still, Iowa is better off than much of this rhetoric suggests. By many measures that count, including affordability, education, and health care, Iowa remains one of the country’s best places to live.

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 

Imagine that a city in Iowa has an 18-hole private country club. Across town, there’s an 18-hole public course and little 9-hole par-3.

Of the seven city council members, five are devoted members of the country club. One day while having cocktails on the country club terrace while griping about dues, the five hatched a plan. They called it “Citizens’ Choice.” They’d give everyone who applied a coupon for $8,000 toward country club membership.

Randy Richardson is a former educator and retired associate executive director of the Iowa State Education Association.

Governor Kim Reynolds signed a new charter school bill into law on May 12, praising it as “yet another step to put students first.” House File 2754 provides additional funding to charter schools at the expense of public schools. While the governor heaped praise on charters, little work has been done to determine just how well they function and whether these charter schools perform better than public schools.

To be clear, charter schools are a form of a public school. They must accept all students, just like regular public schools. However, as a charter, they also get certain freedom to experiment with different education models that regular public schools don’t.

Ten charter schools are currently operating in Iowa, with another eight approved to open in the next two years, according to the governor. In our state, charter schools operate under two models. A school board can approve a charter; these are typically small and operate as an extension of the public school. Hamburg, Storm Lake, and West Central have this kind of charter school.

The remaining seven charter schools in Iowa operate under a founding group that is independent of a school district. Of these seven charters, two were started locally and the rest are operated by groups formed outside of the state.

Little has been written about these schools since they opened, so it’s difficult to know how they have functioned since they opened. Given the recent press coverage around the new charter school law, I decided to dig a little deeper to see how well the schools are doing. I spent hours going through the minutes of their governing boards (when they were available) and examining what little financial information they had shared.

State Senator Molly Donahue represents Iowa Senate district 37, covering part of Cedar Rapids and Marion.

At a time when Iowa faces real challenges—health care access, mental health services, education funding, and the rising cost of living—voters are looking for leadership rooted in lived experience and a genuine commitment to public service. In this Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Josh Turek offers exactly that.

Turek’s story reflects resilience, service, and results. As a Paralympian, he represented the United States on the world stage, demonstrating discipline, focus, and determination at the highest level. But what makes him uniquely qualified for public office is how he has carried those qualities into his work here in Iowa. In the state legislature, Turek has earned a reputation as a thoughtful and pragmatic leader—someone who listens carefully, builds relationships, and acts with purpose.

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.

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 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.

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.”

Gerald Ott of Ankeny was a high school English teacher and for 30 years a school improvement consultant for the Iowa State Education Association.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has won the culture war.

In so-doing, Reynolds has dug the state into a deep, deep hole largely by rallying voters to reject allegedly naughty books and keeping them (us) embroiled in one-after-another pieces of nonsense legislation.

And by gifting a minority of parents, her allies, with the unquestioned right to enroll their kids, at taxpayer’s expense, in any church-affiliated school, academy, or charter of their choice. And, in the face of all these new budget-busting costs, cutting taxes and swaying otherwise public minded voters to doubt the effectiveness of their kids’ local schools. It’s plain sinful.

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 

Dad was a master carpenter. He didn’t graduate from vocational school, wasn’t an apprentice, and he didn’t have a framed certificate announcing his skill. He learned by doing.

For him, “Measure twice and cut once” wasn’t an old platitude. It’s what he lived by, and it made him a master of his trade. He believed consequential planning avoids unintended consequences, and jobs that look simple often aren’t.

Now it appears the U.S. is being led by people who don’t even measure once.

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this article first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

If only Iowa’s school librarians possessed the wisdom of a trio of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The judges overturned a preliminary injunction against Iowa’s three-year-old book ban law on April and abruptly dispensed with the idea it was vague and difficult to apply.

Such contentions, the judges said, were “unavailing.” Which seems strange. Especially since one of the defendants in the case before them actually admitted there was confusion.

“You might be our secret weapon,” State Auditor Rob Sand told hundreds of people attending the Iowa State Education Association’s annual meeting in West Des Moines on April 11. He was speaking because the ISEA PAC decided to recommend the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2026 governor’s race.

ISEA has tens of thousands of members across Iowa’s 99 counties, working in every part of public education: preschool, K-12, community colleges, Area Education Agencies, and school support staff. Those numbers alone would make the group’s endorsement valuable.

Sand sees educators as particularly powerful surrogates for his campaign, because of their diverse political leanings and how connected they are in their communities. Their voices could be helpful in another way, too: public education is a focal point of Sand’s promise to take Iowa in a new direction.

Jason Benell lives in West Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, Dallas County supervisor candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The battle over schools is not something we should take lightly or view as a blip in a partisan battle. This is a generational challenge, which threatens the very existence of our state and our country.

The arguments between public and private schools with voucher programs has taken up a lot of space in Iowa’s political discourse, and for good reason. With hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars going to private religious institutions and years of underfunding public education, we are seeing an attack on the very institutions that have made the United States and places like Iowa even possible.

Jeff Morrison is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative and the publisher of the Between Two Rivers newsletter, where this article first appeared. Find more of his work at betweentworivers.substack.com and iowahighwayends.net.

The Iowa Department of Education’s press release from December 19 said, “State projections developed prior to the passing of the Students First Education Savings Account (ESA) program showed a downward trend in public school enrollment starting in the 2023-24 school year. Likewise, the National Center for Education Statistics projects enrollment at public schools to decrease by 2.7 million students by 2031, a decrease of almost 5% nationally.”

The statement, on its face, is true — but it obscures some essential elements.

• There are now fewer students in Iowa public schools than any time in the modern era, edging out the previous low of 2010-11.
• Excluding a pandemic-related drop between 2019-20 and 2020-21, the percentage loss of public enrollment between 2024-25 and 2025-26 is more than double the greatest loss since 2001-02. It’s the largest percentage loss, period, since 1982-83 to 1983-84.
• The numerical drop in two years (FY25+26) is greater than that of any period in the last four decades (since FY84+85).
• State enrollment projections made through and including 2023 did show a downward trend, but they did not expect the low public numbers seen in the last three years, nor did they anticipate enrollment in private schools surpassing 40,000 for the first time since 2000-01.

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 

Everyone at one time or another has been driven crazy by a backseat driver, sometimes sitting in the front. “There’s a stop sign.” “You’re too close to the curb.” “That car is turning.” “Slow down.” 

There are three general reactions, and none are productive. The driver may nod and ignore, begin to second-guess themselves, or explode, making the remainder of the ride resemble a “red wedding” from “Game of Thrones.”

Second-guessers like to make sure other people are doing things the same way they would do it. When that happens, everyone wants to shout, “If you’re so good at it, why didn’t you do it yourself?”

Steve Peterson is a former teacher from rural Winneshiek County.

Decorah has a long tradition of strong public schools. But budget shortfalls have eroded what our school can provide for our students and our community. In our case, fewer elementary teachers already mean larger class sizes for our youngest students. But I fear the worst is yet to come. 

Districts across the state are grappling with how to deal with a decade of underfunding and a more than $300 million a year voucher program that siphons off public money to fill the balance sheets of private schools. 

Cuts don’t discriminate–rural, urban, or suburban. Our public schools are in trouble. And the pain is being felt across the board. Once again, the Iowa legislature failed our public schools this session, approving yet another meager 2 percent increase in state funding per pupil, which fails to keep up with rising costs. The shortfalls that follow have forced a record 200 districts–or two-thirds of Iowa’s schools–onto a “budget guarantee” that ensures school districts with declining enrollment will see only a 1 percent increase in yearly funding, even as costs rise well beyond that figure.

Robin Opsahl, Brooklyn Draisey, and Cami Koons collaborated on this article, which was first published by Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Following the second “funnel” deadline of the Iowa legislative session, lawmakers often aim to shift their focus from policy to budgeting. But as lawmakers hit week 10 of the 2026 session, it appears agreements have not been reached on some of the top priorities laid out by Republicans at the beginning of session — primarily, eminent domain and property taxes.

Friday marked the second major deadline of the session, when most bills must be passed by one chamber and approved by a committee in the other chamber to stay eligible for consideration. There are many caveats to this rule — legislation involving spending, taxes or government oversight are not subject to the funnel.

Chamber leadership can also designate bills that have not made it through the committee process required as “unfinished business,” saving the measure from the funnel cutoff – and can also bring back “dead” legislation as leadership-sponsored legislation. Some “dead” bills may be added as amendments to surviving bills in future debate.

Jason Benell lives in West Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, Dallas County supervisor candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers.

The latest slate of legislative attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and education betray the seriously myopic view of Iowa Republicans. They might as well amend the state motto or flag to include the phrase “flyover country.”

This isn’t simply a matter of disagreement or a partisan grievance against particular things we may like or dislike. The facts and historical record show diversity has made the United States and states like Iowa strong and a good place to live. This extends beyond cultural touchstones and witty phrases and goes right into the heart of the Iowan economy and social interactions.

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 

We’ve all probably been trapped in a no-win situation. There’s no way out. There’s no good choice.

That’s often called Hobson’s choice. It was supposedly named after a 17^th century stable owner named Hobson who had a corner on the market and forced customers to choose the horse closest to the door or take no horse at all.

Customers had no real choice. They could walk or pay good money for a bad horse which Hobson always located closest to the door.

Hobson’s choice is depicted by the cartoon bully scowling, doubling his first, and shouting, “Do you want to get punched in the stomach or face?”

No choice, just an ultimatum.

The majority party in the Iowa legislature has trapped public schools in a no-win situation. It’s Hobson’s choice at its worst because it isn’t about a broken-down horse, it’s about the futures of public school students.

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. 

We all need reminders now and then.

Some of us believe there is only one correct way to think and speak and act in these United States of America. But that is not true.

Americans are not who we are because we are the same. Americans are who we are, and our nation has long been a shining beacon, because we are all different and were brought together by that freedom to be different.

One occasional reader of my stray thoughts suggested I republish the following column from 2017, which remains relevant today.

Brooklyn Draisey is a Report for America corps member covering higher education for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Iowa private college officials say a key lawmaker is threatening funding to a state tuition grant program over their opposition to allowing community colleges to offer four-year degrees.

Gary Steinke, president of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said lobbyists for the association received a call last week from Republican State Representative Taylor Collins, chair of the Iowa House Higher Education Committee. Steinke said Collins told them certain Iowa lawmakers are thinking of withholding their support for funding for the Iowa Tuition Grant program, which provides financial aid to students in need who wish to attend one of the state’s private higher education institutions.

The threat stems from anger over the private institutions’ opposition to House File 2649, Steinke says. The bill would establish a pilot program in which certain community colleges could establish up to three bachelor’s degrees in specific programs.

Nick Covington is an Iowa parent who taught high school social studies for ten years.

As I round the corner on 40, it’s been humbling and heartbreaking to reflect on how much of my life experience has been defined by global historic change: a child of the 1990s growing up at the peak of American exceptionalism, bookended by the worst attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor, graduating college during the worst recession since the Great Depression, and having my own young children attend school during the worst viral outbreak since the flu epidemic a century ago.

However, regardless of which epochal change I’ve lived through, there has been at least one constant: lectures from the party of “personal responsibility.” 

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. 

It’s funny how a government body can learn and teach an important civics lesson in the time it takes a student to go from kindergarten through 12th grade.

In 2012, the Atlantic Community School District won a lawsuit to keep information secret about disciplinary measures taken against two employees who conducted a strip-search of five girls to try to find $100 another student reported missing.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote a dissent in the case, noting that “transparency in government surely will be thwarted” by those who can “quell public discourse and end controversies over employee misconduct with no public scrutiny by simply announcing discipline has been imposed.”

For the past nine years, Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature has given Governor Kim Reynolds a free hand. GOP lawmakers allowed Reynolds to spend billions of federal dollars provided through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan with no legislative input.

They approved most of the governor’s signature proposals, expanded her power to hire and fire officials, and allowed her to set agency directors’ salaries with no constraints.

Neither chamber’s Government Oversight Committee has investigated any alleged malfeasance or mismanagement in the Reynolds administration, such as the governor’s questionable spending of pandemic relief funds on her staff’s salaries, or the tens of millions of dollars wasted on a no-bid contract for Workday.

Now, in the tenth year of Iowa’s GOP trifecta, the ruling party has suddenly decided the legislature should be a check on the executive. Several bills that are eligible for floor debate could prevent Reynolds’ successor from making big changes in state government.

Insulting all of our collective intelligence, Republican lawmakers claim these bills aren’t fueled by concern that State Auditor Rob Sand may win the governor’s race in November.

Here’s a rundown of pending bills that could hamstring the next Democratic governor.

Robin Opsahl, Brooklyn Draisey, and Cami Koons collaborated on this article, which was first published by Iowa Capital Dispatch. Clark Kauffman and Kathie Obradovich also contributed to this story

Iowa lawmakers took on hundreds of bills in the first six weeks of the 2026 legislative session, though several measures named as top priorities heading into the year, like eminent domain and property taxes, have yet to find consensus.

February 19 was the last day lawmakers met to consider legislation before the first “funnel” deadline of the year. While there are many exceptions, most bills that don’t involve spending, taxes or government oversight must pass through a committee in either the House or Senate in order to stay eligible for consideration.

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 

Protecting children is a shared value of most adults. A newborn can’t leave the hospital unless they’re buckled into an approved car seat. We childproof our houses. We gasp the first time they swing too high and move closer to catch them if they fly out. When they’re tweens and teens, we stay up sweating until they’re home. We insist on seat belts, driver’s training, and helmets for bicycle riding.

At school, there are tornado, fire, and lockdown drills. There are lists of people approved to pick up students at the end of the day. Schools warn parents not to send a sick child to school.

We’re protective and cautious.

That’s why a bill now pending in the Iowa House is so troubling.

Linda Schreiber writes commentary on selected legislative issues.

While Iowa’s public universities support one in every ten jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic impact statewide, Republicans are pushing for yet another layer of oversight on the Regent institutions.

House File 2243, introduced by Iowa House Higher Education Committee chair Taylor Collins and eligible for floor debate, would require the Iowa Board of Regents to report to the state legislature and governor on how the board “could establish a performance-based funding model” for the three state universities. That funding model “must include” the following factors: graduation rates, degrees awarded in high-demand fields, postgraduate employment and income, and the number of graduates who stay in Iowa after graduation.

Those metrics already tell a compelling story: the state’s public universities are essential to meeting Iowa’s workforce needs, retaining talent, and strengthening communities across the state.

According to the Iowa Board of Regents, Graduates of the University of Iowa (UI), Iowa State University (ISU), and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) fuel Iowa’s economy, filling high-demand roles in health care, education, and STEM fields.

Yet legislators frequently criticize the Regent universities while placing increasing constraints on their operations. What Iowans need are clear, accessible facts about the value and success of their public universities—and what those institutions need in return is stable, realistic financial support, not micromanagement, to continue delivering results for Iowa.

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.

Politicians who seek to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at public institutions, and even try to extend the ban to the private sector, argue that DEI potentially discriminates against individuals who are not of a race, religion, ethnicity, gender orientation, or other group that DEI seeks to protect.

Individuals from the dominant groups in the nation or a state, they reason, deserve to be treated fairly, as individuals, in competition for college admission, employment, housing, and other sectors. No one should be favored because he or she belongs to a group that is supposedly discriminated against in our society and culture.