Bernie Scolaro is a retired school counselor, a past president of the Sioux City Education Association, and current Sioux City school board member.

The Iowa State Fair may be a good place for conspirators to say the quiet part out loud in public and hardly get noticed. People are far too busy eating food on sticks and taking pictures of the Butter Cow. 

If you happened to watch Governor Kim Reynolds’ “fair-side chats,” you may have seen the governor clap gleefully as GOP presidential candidate Perry Johnson spoke of wanting to do away with the U.S. Department of Education.

Rule 1: Put it out there, normalize the concept to avoid real thought about what that would mean for our future students.

Rule 2: Make public education the enemy in the eyes of the people. Against parents. Against norms of society so it looks like you are actually in a red cape saving parents and children (from propaganda, from pedophiles, from books that brainwash you, from history that destroys your self-esteem). 

Rule 3: Allow public education to starve. Take away its funding, so resources can become even more scarce and staff can’t get an increase in a living wage. So they have to leave the profession. 

Rule 4: Strip all power and control away from public school teachers who are still here. Make them voiceless and mindless like the Butter Cow. Belittle them, don’t treat them with respect like the professionals they are. Tell them what they can or cannot teach, what books they can or cannot have in their libraries, and threaten them with punishments if they dare to challenge the status quo. Reduce their status and their numbers, making them want to leave the profession too.

While you’re at it, dumb down the requirements for teaching in response to the shortage you have created. So now, not only are public schools lacking enough teachers, educators are being replaced by those with less credentials and expertise.

Rule 5: Shake it up from the top. Appoint an anti-public education person to lead the Iowa Department of Education. Don’t provide guidance for sweeping new laws, in order to sow confusion, chaos, and fear.

And most chilling, turn a blind eye as public education takes a turn for the worse. After all, Governor Reynolds, you need to get that photo op with the Butter Cow.

Top photo of Governor Kim Reynolds and Perry Johnson during his “fair-side chat” on August 18 was first published on Johnson’s campaign Facebook page. Johnson routinely promises to shut down the U.S. Department of Education in his stump speeches.