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   

I’m old enough to remember when Fonzie jumped the shark on the show “Happy Days.” That episode spawned a new idiom, referring to when something “has reached its peak and starts to decline in quality.”

But the 1977 “shark jumping” didn’t just happen. It occurred as the sitcom writers neglected script quality and instead relied on outrageous, attention-grabbing gimmicks.

That’s what’s happening in Iowa. But it’s not a sitcom that’s past its prime—it’s Iowa’s beloved public education system. Public schools have suffered from long-term neglect and three attention-grabbing attacks, which remind me of how Fonzie jumped the shark.

For decades, our state was a national leader in public education. In the 1990s, Iowa was ranked in the top five states in reading and math. Now, Iowa ranks in the middle or lower, depending on the rating system.

When Iowa was an education leader, the state used that ranking as a marketing tool. Legislators from both parties puffed up their chests bragging about Iowa’s schools. Teachers with Iowa credentials were top picks for any classroom in the country.

That was then. This is now.

In a 2022 edition about the best high schools, U.S. News and World Report ranked Iowa 48th out of 51. While this may be only one ranking, and I’m never sure of the criteria, it starts sirens shrieking and sharks circling.

But before the public starts pointing fingers at “woke teachers” or “socialist school boards,” remember that Iowa kids are on average scoring better than they did in reading and math in the 1990s. In the meantime, other states have improved student performance through concerted efforts. So, why did Iowa schools slide in national rankings?

For 38 years I heard legislators say, “You can’t throw money at the problem.” But If the legislature threw money, schools missed the catch.

Iowa funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation for more than a decade. Since 2011, the average inflation rate has been 3.51 percent, while state supplemental aid for K-12 public schools has increased by an average of 2.60 percent. That’s an average gap of 0.91 percent each year. So, over the last 14 years, public schools were funded an overall 12.74 percent below inflation. 

That’s long-term neglect.

Governor Kim Reynolds deepened the neglect recently by jumping three sharks.

The first time was demonizing teachers in her 2022 Condition of the State address. Speaking of books in school, she said, “These books are so explicit they’d be X-rated if they were movies.”

That wasn’t quite as absurd as former President Donald Trump’s recent claim public schools were performing secret gender surgeries on kids and then sending them home to surprised parents, but it was close.

At the governor’s insistence, her party passed Senate File 496 in 2023. That bill prohibited books containing a description of sex acts, as well as any instruction or curriculum about gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade. The goal was to create doubt about schools.

Shark number two was Reynolds’ private voucher scheme to provide public money to private schools. It’s one of the largest private school voucher plans in the country and even though not fully implemented, it’s already cost more than $50 million more than initial estimates. Reynolds also recently siphoned $4 million from federal American Rescue Plan funds to help eleven charter schools.

The last time Reynolds jumped shark was this year’s effort to dismantle the Area Education Agency system. AEAs have served both public and private schools for 50 years. Since Reynolds gutted the system, around 500 AEA employees have retired or quit. That will limit needed services, and we still don’t know the full impact.

In November, Iowans need to send a message to leaders: stop the neglect and outrageous attacks on our public schools. We can do better to protect our future.