BY LOIS K. COX AND KATHERINE H. TACHAU
The actuality of the Iowa legislative session makes the time a few months ago when we wrote “The Erosion of Support for Education and Tenure in Iowa” for the winter 2023 issue of Academe seem halcyon in contrast. Our fears for the future of public education in Iowa have intensified, some of them have been realized, and new fears have arisen.
Governor Kim Reynolds’s “school choice” legislation, designed to funnel millions of tax dollars from public to private K–12 schools, passed within days of the legislature convening. The Republican majority was astute in placing this controversial bill first on its agenda so that it could sail through while the adrenaline flow of increased majorities was fresh, and before differences within the Republican caucus could fully emerge.
Right on schedule, a bill to abolish tenure at the state universities was introduced in the Iowa House. Its sponsor, Representative Steven Holt, stated almost immediately that he wouldn’t seek to move the bill forward but hoped the universities would “take the message back” that the legislature is watching them. In sending his message, Holt spoke of the need to respond to “some of the irrational, woke stuff” happening on the campuses. Meanwhile, his colleague Senator Brad Zaun pledged to introduce legislation to require post-tenure review to occur every two to three years, as opposed to the current schedule of five-year reviews. Were such a proposal to become law, the result would be either to hamstring the faculty by forcing faculty members to at least double the many hours they currently spend on post-tenure review, a process most of them take very seriously, or to deprive the review process of its current vitality and effectiveness by making it pro forma. Neither outcome would bode well for faculty productivity.
New horribles, previously thought imaginary, are on the table. The governor has proposed that if one public school district in the state decides to remove a book from its school library shelves, no school district could allow a student access to that book without written permission from the student’s parents. Were another such bill to pass, colleges of education at the state universities would be queried about the meaning of various “concepts and terms” used in courses. A quick look at the list of terms to be defined clarifies that the aim of the legislation is not the definition of terms, but the teaching of subject matter seen as “woke.” Legislators seek to codify the “parents’ rights” agenda by prohibiting any teaching related to gender identity in elementary schools, and by requiring “outing” of students who want to change their pronouns without parental approval.
The Far Right agenda is not focused exclusively on education but does seem to be preoccupied with the young. Iowa, like many other states, is experiencing a shortage of ready workers. But instead of acting to make jobs safer and more remunerative, Iowa has chosen another path. In a move that sees public policy retreat to the nineteenth century, one pending bill rolls back child labor laws to permit those fourteen and over to work in dangerous occupations such as meatpacking and construction with “adequate supervision and training.” The bill also goes a long way towards shielding employers from liability should the child workers become ill or suffer injuries or death as a result of the work. Under the bill, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds could serve alcohol in bars with the permission of a parent or guardian. Lastly, the bill would extend the hours in the day when children are permitted to do this work, a provision almost certain to affect a child’s educational progress.
As might be anticipated, the media has shifted its attention to account for the new legislative reality of an essentially one-party government. Though Democrats in the legislature have remained unified in opposition to the proposals discussed here, their dissent is barely mentioned. Rather, media attention is focused on the only disagreement that might actually affect results—dissension within the Republican caucus. The result in terms of public discussion is that the options on the table seem to be the bad and the worse. It promises to be a long winter here in Iowa.
Lois K. Cox is clinical professor of law emerita and Katherine H. Tachau is professor of history emerita, both at the University of Iowa.
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