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  

In 1989, the movie Field of Dreams painted an idyllic picture of Iowa. The most iconic scene was when a ghostly player asks, “Is this heaven?” Ray, played by Kevin Costner, answers, “No, it’s Iowa.”

More than three decades later, even those with rose colored glasses wouldn’t mistake Iowa for heaven. It’s changed. 

Once, both political parties valued protecting children. It was a core value.

But that’s gone. It’s buried next to “Iowa nice.”

Here’s what led to its death.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

Republicans, particularly Iowa Republicans, seem to have a serious problem with science and the scientific method. Their actions and rhetoric treat science as if it is some monolithic thing to appeal to or a lever you can pull to look good and reasonable in the face of scrutiny. However, like so many concepts and principles that require thought and consideration, they seem to really struggle with science and the scientific method. 

So often, Republicans substitute a tradition or a belief or cultural icon for science, in order to justify some action or some policy proposal. It is a common refrain, with scientific and secular organizations lining up with data, expertise, and testable hypotheses on one side of an issue. On the other side—the Republican side—there are faith-based organizations and Very Concerned Citizens who have little to no scientific data to back them up. These folks tend to view science the same way they view their favored religious text: as an authoritative source of knowledge that must be appealed to, rather than a process that should be applied and worked through.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

Current controversy over the Iowa Department of Education’s proposals for new school standards on science education goes back only a couple of months. But on Sunday, January 26, a Des Moines pastor went back some 3,000 years in scripture to discuss how the agency’s proposals reflect the threats that Christian Nationalism poses to our democracy and the nation’s religious life.

At the end of his sermon, the congregation applauded him for doing so.

The pastor is the Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski.

The congregation is Westminster Presbyterian in the Beaverdale neighborhood of Des Moines.

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  

Americans love expressing their opinions. After all, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech. You’ll find those loud opinions at any sporting event. Sit in the stands at any field or gym and you’ll hear the bleacher experts sitting fifteen rows up, sometimes three beers in.

Trying to get a family to reach a consensus on where to eat is almost as complicated as diplomatic détente. Strategic planning meetings are a kind of American torture chamber. And we’ve all read the “expert opinions” on Facebook.

This year marks the centennial of the notorious Scopes trial, held in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, over the question of whether a state could ban the teaching of e – – – – – – – – (rhymes with “revolution”) in its public schools.

This month the people of Iowa caught a whiff of that episode as a result of a proposed revision to state standards on science education in Iowa schools.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

The Iowa Department of Education may be first in the nation in commemorating a centennial to be ashamed of.

I’m talking about the 100^th anniversary of the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, which took place from July 10 to July 21, 1925. John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, was convicted of violating a state law, the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach human evolution in public schools. He was fined $100 (about $1,800 in today’s dollars), but never had to serve jail time.

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

Jackson Katz created a peer leadership program called Mentors in Violence Prevention in 1993. The concept was to empower bystanders to help prevent bullying, sexual harassment and gender-related violence. Some schools implemented Mentors in Violence Prevention strategies in 1997. Sioux City West High School implemented the training program while I was a school counselor there. Assistant Principal Al Heisterkamp took the lead. Philanthropist Cindy Waitt and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention provided support and funding, which contributed to this program’s success nationwide. 

This program deserves its own recognition and deep dive, but here’s one key fact: its success was based on training peers to educate their peers in standing up for each other. Why did this model work? Because we tend to listen to people who are more like us; in this instance, those similar in age.

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

At long last the Iowa Department of Education released school enrollment numbers for the current school year on January 17. Public school enrollment took another dip this year as a total of 480,665 students attended Iowa schools. That’s a decrease of 3033.3 students from the previous year. Private schools, however, continued their growth with a total of 39,356 students. That’s an increase of 3,144 students or 8.7 percent from the previous year.

For years, private school enrollment decreased statewide. Since “Education Savings Accounts” (more commonly known as vouchers) have become widely available, that trend had reversed. Not only has enrollment increased, but more private schools have been opening statewide. This year saw an additional 21 accredited private schools open, bringing the total number of private schools to 211. Almost 80 percent of all private schools in the state saw enrollment gains. Compare that to public schools where only 36 percent saw an increase in enrollment.

Dexter Merschbrock is a member of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 373 from Cedar Rapids, spouse to a public school teacher, former school board member, and father of three. He is originally from Fort Madison. 

As this year’s Iowa legislative session gets underway, supporters of public schools can expect little in the way of substantive policy to make things better for our state’s students and families. Over the past two years, tens of thousands of Iowans came together to advocate against the destructive school voucher program and in support of the state’s Area Education Agencies. Those efforts, while valiant, did not sway most Republican legislators.

This year, with even larger Republican majorities in both chambers and no legislative elections coming this fall, I propose a different approach, to make our voices heard on the local level.

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

I watched Governor Kim Reynolds’ Condition of the State message on YouTube on January 15, the day after she spoke to state legislators. I followed along with the text from her official webpage. If she left out a word, I missed the omission.

Every citizen should scrutinize the governor’s remarks to see if or how she speaks to you. If I seem cynical, I feel justified.

I didn’t put a timer on it, but minutes devoted to hand clapping seemed to outnumber the actual minutes of speaking. Those packed in the “People’s House” no doubt came away with hands reddened and raw from clapping.

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   

Often when a politician gives a speech, what’s not said speaks volumes. The details left out are as important or more important than what’s said.

That’s the case with Governor Kim Reynolds’ Condition of the State on January 14—especially when it comes to what she left out about public education.

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   

Most veteran educators will tell you public education often falls in love with shiny, new trends. A school administrator goes to a conference and comes home with the latest, greatest idea, and is convinced every classroom should implement it immediately. 

It happened so often we called it the “flavor of the month.” Trends like the Madeline Hunter method, Cooperative learning, McRel, Open classroom, and Individual learning, are just a few examples. All had their day in the sun and died a slow or quick death.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

Essential workers. What comes to mind first for most folks are the EMTs, police, nurses, and firefighters. Then, if they think a bit more, I’ll hear about postal workers, logistics personnel like truckers and train conductors, waste management workers, and utility workers. If you badger folks again, they will mention food service workers, grocery store shelf stockers and clerks, and maybe some of the folks specific to their industry or lifestyle. You really gotta dig down a lot of times to get to folks like teachers, home health care workers, or retirement home staff. 

However, there is a profession that I consider more crucial than many of the above, because without it the others might become non-starters.

I’m talking about child care workers, in particular, early childhood education workers and day care providers.

Charles Bruner is a former Democratic Iowa legislator (1978-1990), was the founding director of Iowa Child and Family Policy Center (1990-2015, now Common Good Iowa), and is national director of the InCK Marks Initiative’s Child Health Equity Leadership Group.

PREFACE

Between 2008 and 2024, about one in ten voters in Iowa shifted from voting for Democrats to voting for Republicans. Over those eight elections, the overall shift in Iowa’s rural, white, working-class counties and communities was closer to one voter in five. From being bluish-purple, Iowa now is considered a solid red state. If Democrats are to become competitive in 2026 and future elections, they must regain trust with and win a good share of these voters back.

Bleeding Heartland has done a public service in publishing the statements of the three candidates seeking to be Iowa Democratic Party chair and rebuild the Democratic party and its brand. (Editor’s note: here are the statements from Rita Hart, Tim Winter, and Alexandra Nickolas-Dermody.)

I hope these statements receive broad review, and people will look at them as more than either-or statements for selecting a party chair. Hopefully, they will serve as a basis for dialogue and activism among Democrats on how to move forward.

I am a Democrat because I believe in the values Democrats hold and seek to place into public policy—one recognizing that government must play a positive role in ensuring broadly shared and sustainable prosperity for its residents and their families. I am a policy wonk when it comes to operationalizing those values into specific policies (and there is a role there – see below for a beginning iteration), but I believe key to restoring the Democratic party is a much more concerted articulation of these values. Moreover, I believe there is substantial consensus among Democratics, whether considering themselves moderate or progressive, on those values and the policy agendas that advance them.

As each new year begins, I enjoy looking back at the posts that resonated most strongly with readers in the year that ended. Some things never change: actions by the Republican-controlled state legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds—especially attacks on public education—inspired many of Bleeding Heartland’s most-viewed posts from 2024. That’s been true every year since the GOP trifecta began in 2017. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, who featured prominently in two of last year’s most popular posts, makes another appearance below.

I’ve learned there is no way to predict which pieces will take off. Some of the posts linked below required intensive research and days of writing, while others took only a few hours from start to finish. One was among the longest I wrote last year (more than 5,000 words), while another was among the shortest (fewer than 300 words).

Some authors whose work gained a large following in past years made the list again. But three authors featured below were contributing to Bleeding Heartland for the first time.

This list draws from Fathom Analytics data about total views for 561 posts published from January 1 through December 31, 2024. I wrote 145 of those articles and commentaries; other authors wrote 416. I left out the site’s front page and the “about” page, where many people landed following online searches.

A half-dozen posts barely missed the top 24, by a few hundred views or less:

Bleeding Heartland set yet another record for guest contributions in 2024, with 416 posts involving 146 authors. (The previous record was 358 posts that more than 125 people wrote for this site in 2023.) I don’t know of any state-based political website that provides more quality coverage and commentary by guest contributors.

This year’s guest authors covered a wide range of topics, from public schools to local government, major employers, CO2 pipelines, notable events in Iowa history, and of course wildflowers.

They wrote about President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Governor Kim Reynolds and her administration, Attorney General Brenna Bird, and of course former and future President Donald Trump.

During the legislative session, guest authors highlighted flaws in the governor’s plan to overhaul Area Education Agencies and the report that sought to justify it. They shared their own personal or professional experiences with AEAs. They covered other education proposals and explained why the state’s official school voucher numbers were misleading. They also covered bills that received less attention but could change many Iowans’ lives for better or worse.

During the 2024 campaign and its aftermath, guest authors wrote about presidential polling in Iowa and nationally, profiled candidates, and analyzed the election results from several angles.

Guest authors sounded the alarm about Iowa’s near-total abortion ban, unlawful drug testing at hospitals, and climate change impacts. They suggested ways to protect water and air quality, and flagged transparency problems in state and local government. They reviewed books that would interest many Bleeding Heartland readers.

They reflected on the lives of those who passed away this year, including Iowans Marcia Nichols, Bobby Washington, and Jim Leach, as well as Tim Kraft, who played an important role on some Iowa campaigns.

While many guest authors criticized Republican policies and politicians, some offered advice or constructive criticism to Democrats following the Iowa caucuses and another disappointing general election.

As noted below, some contributions by guest authors were among the most-viewed Bleeding Heartland posts of the year.

Alexandra Nickolas-Dermody is Vice Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus, a longtime election strategist and organizer, and a lifelong Iowan. On December 31 she emailed this message to members of the Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee, who will elect a state party chair for the next two years on January 4. Bleeding Heartland has not edited her text in any way.

Dear Central Committee Members and Iowa Democrats,

I hope this email finds you well. As a lifelong Democrat, Central Committee Member, and Vice Chair of the Progressive Caucus, I have had the privilege of working alongside many of you to build a stronger, more inclusive party. Today, I am reaching out to ask for your support in my candidacy for Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party.

Who I Am

For those I haven’t had the opportunity to meet personally, I’m Alexandra Nickolas-Dermody — a caregiver, election strategist and organizer, former non profit director, and working class Iowan. I’m a proud lifelong Iowan who has dedicated my life to empowering working-class folks, young voters, and marginalized communities. My work advocating for affordable housing, workers’ rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and reproductive freedom has prepared me to take on the challenges we face as a party.

Henry Jay Karp is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa, which he served from 1985 to 2017. He is the co-founder and co-convener of One Human Family QCA, a social justice organization. This essay first appeared on his Substack column.

When folks like me call out what we see as a profound danger to our society, as it appears that our government is turning against entire segments of our community, stripping or reducing the rights of select groups of people who are our neighbors, there are those who claim we are alarmists sowing discontent; that we are modern day “Chicken Littles,” going around declaring that the sky is falling.

On December 27, the Quad City Times published its list of “top 10 Iowa stories of 2024.” One look at the list offers more than ample justification for the warnings I and so many others have offered about the current state of our state and the troubling prospects of what lies ahead for Iowa and the nation over the next four years. A whopping seven out of these ten top stories are matters of serious concern for Iowa’s social justice advocates.

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 a basketball team where players are paid a bonus per basket, rebound, or steal. Would the five players work together to win, or would the game be about individual statistics and earning the biggest paycheck? Now imagine only two of the five players can earn a bonus. How would the other three starters and the bench react? 

In November, Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education announced an $8.5 million competitive grant program to recognize teachers who accelerate student learning beyond one year of learning. Districts would be able to provide $2,500 in supplemental pay to the top 10 percent. Total district awards will vary based on the number of teachers in the district, up to a maximum of $500,000.

Reynolds called this program a “Teachers Accelerating Learning grant.” It’s funded through federal dollars from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan.

No matter what she calls the concept, it’s still just merit pay.

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

“We recognize as a board and as a district that the lives of many of our students and their families will be impacted because of immigration policy,” said Des Moines Public Schools board member Maria Alonzo. “We felt making this statement was important.”

That quote comes from Samantha Hernandez’s story for the Des Moines Register on the Des Moines Public Schools’ new policy statement about the immigration concerns of students and their families. It appears to be an effort to resist President-elect Donald Trump’s plan (endorsed by Governor Kim Reynolds) to conduct mass deportations of undocumented migrant children and their families.

I commend the school district for releasing this statement, which recognizes the precariousness of students whose parents (or themselves) are here from another country and possibly lack documentation.

Henry Jay Karp is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa, which he served from 1985 to 2017. He is the co-founder and co-convener of One Human Family QCA, a social justice organization. This essay first appeared on his Substack column.

Shortly after the recent election, Democratic State Representative Ken Croken, one of the members of the Quad Cities delegation to the Iowa legislature, hosted a meeting at a local library. The theme was, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

The room was packed. It was booked for an hour, but for the first half hour those in attendance were obsessed with the question of “Where did the Democrats go so wrong?” Every speaker had his or her view on why Democratic candidates failed so miserably, both nationally and in Iowa.

It was interesting, to a point. It allowed people to grieve and vent their anger, but it wasn’t very useful and it definitely was off topic. Finally, I raised my hand in frustration and said, “We’re talking about the wrong thing! It will be two years before we can effect change through the voting booth! But it will only be two months before January 20 and day one of the Trump presidency! Right now we have bigger fish to fry and not a lot of time to get cooking!”

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   

Storm clouds thicken as flashes brighten a distant sky. It’s coming. The snare drum cadence of thunder morphs into booming bass drums accompanied by a slashing light show. The wind howls. You check the batteries in the flashlights. You close the windows and secure the garbage cans.

It’s time to gather family, grab flashlights, and head for lower ground.

There are different kinds of storms. On January 13, a legislative storm will begin brewing in Des Moines. It’s time to gather the education family to prepare.

“They don’t make them like Jim Leach anymore,” posted the elections analysts at The Downballot after learning Leach had passed away on December 11. They were commenting on his extraordinary warning to the Republican National Committee chairman that he would not caucus with Republicans in the next Congress if the Iowa GOP continued to fund direct mail attacking his 2006 Democratic challenger.

Among Iowans who have served in Congress, Leach was unique in many ways.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. He first published this essay on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

A common refrain, particularly in centrist-to-liberal spaces, is that in order to make any kind of progress or reach consensus, we must always be conciliatory and tread lightly when discussing topics with folks who oppose the prevailing Democratic viewpoint.

The post-election analysis of 2016 was a good example of this, when “economic anxiety” became a stand-in for folks who were just uninformed on the issues. We saw it again in 2020 with folks being “skeptical of COVID” instead of simply uninformed.

Already, we are seeing it again—but notably, a lot less—in the aftermath of the 2024 election. We hear folks were “worried about the economy” despite, once again, folks just being uninformed.

UPDATE: In early January, Dexter Merschbrock withdrew as a contender for Iowa Democratic Party state chair and endorsed Alexandra Nickolas-Dermody for the position. Original post follows.

Dexter Merschbrock is a member of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 373 from Cedar Rapids, spouse to a public school teacher, and father of three. He is originally from Fort Madison. 

The Iowa Democratic Party’s current state chair Rita Hart often talked in the last two years about the 90,000 Democrats in the state who turned out to vote in 2020, but didn’t turn out in the 2022 midterm elections. The theory seemed to be that if those Democrats voted in 2024, the party would see improved results. Either this theory was wrong or, even worse, Democrats failed to turn out 2020 voters at the same time Republicans were increasing their turnout percentage.

Either way, the result is the same: Iowa Democrats, led by chair Rita Hart, failed to convince enough Iowans to vote for them.

Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed former State Representative Dustin Hite as a District Court judge. The governor’s office announced the appointment on November 29, one day before the end of the 30-day window for Reynolds to name either Hite or the other nominee for the position, Keokuk County attorney Amber Thompson.

Hite served two terms in the state legislature, and as chair of the House Education Committee helped enact some of Reynolds’ agenda. He fast-tracked bills in 2021 that required schools to provide fully in-person instruction as an option, and prohibited school districts and local governments from imposing mask mandates.

However, Hite earned the governor’s wrath by not bringing school voucher bills up for a vote in the Education Committee during the 2021 or 2022 legislative sessions. In addition, he opted not to assign school “bathroom bills” to a subcommittee, and opposed various “tort reform” proposals to limit damages Iowans could recover in medical malpractice cases or lawsuits involving trucking companies. 

Hite was among four House Republicans who opposed school voucher bills and subsequently lost their 2022 primaries after Reynolds endorsed GOP rivals. The governor recorded a robocall urging voters to back Helena Hayes in Hite’s district. Hayes was just re-elected to a second term representing House district 88.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst will be a leading Congressional partner of President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to drastically cut federal spending. On November 22 her office “announced the founding of the Senate DOGE Caucus, which will work hand in hand with the Trump administration’s recently formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to identify and eliminate government waste.”

That “department” is actually a non-governmental advisory body, co-led by Trump’s billionaire buddy Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Staying outside the government allows DOGE to operate without Congressional authorization, and avoid federal rules on transparency and conflicts of interest.

In recent days, Ernst shared her spending cut proposals with Ramaswamy and traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, Musk, and others in the incoming administration.

Going all in on DOGE is a risky strategy.

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 things are hard to predict. Why is my cell phone obsolete after a month? Which Hawkeye quarterback will play Saturday? Will the Stranger Things cast be on Medicare before it returns to Netflix, and which cabinet position will Donald Trump give to Dr. Phil?

Other things are easy to predict. A match between a 58-year-old biting-boxer and a 27-year-old YouTuber will always feature dancing and a few scripted punches. If you’re a male over age 60 on Facebook, and a 20-something woman with a revealing neckline says your posts are fascinating, she’s scamming you. 

The most predictable thing: Iowa’s ruling trifecta, led by a governor desperate to get her MAGA creds back, will ram extreme public education bills through the legislature next year.

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. 

Earlier this month, I bumped into an Appanoose County woman I have known for several years. She thanked me and the nonprofit organization I manage for shining the spotlight on the actions of Centerville Community School District leaders.

This mother told me I was responsible for her spending part of a recent evening listening to the recording of a closed meeting of the Centerville school board that had just been made public by order of a judge. 

Tom Walton is an attorney in Dallas County.

An analysis of any political defeat must start with the message—what did you say to voters about why they should vote for you, and how did you say it? When you’re shut out of every branch of government, the only thing you have left is your message.

When commentators have focused on the Democratic losing message in 2024, they criticized many things, including “performative ‘wokeness’—the in-group messaging used by hyper-online and overeducated progressives” and “the stale politics of identity.” Too much about abortion—not enough about how hard it was for folks to just get by.

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   

One of our first warnings for children is, “Don’t take candy from strangers.” Iowans need to remember that lesson when politicians offer their version of candy. It seems so sweet, but bitter truth lurks behind.

When Governor Kim Reynolds tells us what she is going to do, Iowans should believe her. She’s shown she’s not shy about getting her way. We’re a one-party state with no checks or balances, and that one party just received another mandate from voters. Legislators may tinker around the edges, but the governor gets what she wants, unless the public protest demonstrates the mandate was a mirage.

This post has been updated with the unofficial results from each race. Original post follows.

Democrats go into the November 5 election with the smallest Iowa House contingent they’ve had in five decades. But even though control of the chamber is not in question, this year’s state House races matter.

Despite having a 64 to 36 advantage for the past two years, Republicans struggled to find 51 votes for some of their controversial legislation, such as Governor Kim Reynolds’ plan to overhaul the Area Education Agencies. So chipping away at the GOP majority could help limit further damage to public education or civil rights.

Conversely, a net loss of Democratic-held seats would allow the majority to govern with even fewer constraints.

This post highlights nine Iowa House seats most at risk of flipping, plus seven districts that could be competitive, or where the results could shed light on broader political trends in Iowa. I will update later with unofficial results from all of these races.

Sami Scheetz represents Iowa House district 78, covering part of Cedar Rapids.

When we brought our daughter home from the hospital a few months ago, and I watched our baby swaddled in her bassinet, sleeping peacefully, I couldn’t help but think about the future my wife and I are building for her. Now, with the November 5 election a few days away, I wonder: What kind of place will Iowa be for families today and for generations to come?

When my daughter grows up, will she find an Iowa that is as inclusive, welcoming, and safe as the one I inherited—or will she find an Iowa neither of us recognize, a place where people feel they have little in common with their government, and their voices are not heard?

This post has been updated with unofficial results from the November 5 election, as well as the final pre-election campaign finance disclosures and absentee ballot totals as of November 2. Original post follows.

Republicans currently hold 34 Iowa Senate seats—the largest GOP contingent in that chamber since 1973. Democrats are not realistically contending to regain the Senate majority in November. So why pay any attention to these legislative races?

Although the most competitive state Senate races won’t determine control of the chamber, they could reveal a lot about each party’s strengths with certain kinds of voters. A good night for Republicans would indicate that the Trump-era realignment has moved further into Iowa’s former blue regions. A good night for Democrats could pull the GOP below the two-thirds threshold, which has allowed Senate Republicans to confirm all of Governor Kim Reynolds’ nominees without any support from the minority party.

This post highlights four state Senate districts at most risk of flipping, and another seven districts where even without a big investment by Democrats or Republicans, the results could shed light on broader political trends in Iowa. A forthcoming article will cover state House races to watch in 2024.

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   

If you’ve had the privilege of walking with a four-year-old, you’ll understand what pure wonder looks like. Their eyes dilate as they purse their lips. They touch the newfound object with loving care.  They stare for what seems like hours. 

My four-year-old companion becomes a miniature investigative reporter, with machine gun questions. “Why is the sky blue?” “What kind of bug is that?” “How do birds fly?” “Why does that cloud look like my dog?” 

It’s like being questioned by tiny Bob Woodward.

It’s exhilarating and enlightening.

But like some politicians, you’re relieved when you look around and find no fact checker.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers.

Christian Nationalism has seen so many victories with the makeup of the highest courts at both the state and federal levels. Time and again right-wing courts seem poised to enact theocracy by privileging religious belief over equality under the law and even basic human and civil rights.

These rulings and opinions are never based on reason or evidence but rather are special pleading for some vague “sincerely held belief” that seems to act as a get-out-of-jail-free card for religious individuals and organizations that circumvent civil rights laws. There are many examples in the not-so-distant history that point to this creeping assault on equal treatment under the law, but also rulings just this year that many people would likely be surprised to hear about.

Jenny Turner is a public school mom and a school speech therapist. She lives in West Des Moines.

“Education is Warfare,” blares the homepage for Canon Press curriculum. The founder, Douglas Wilson, echoed that sentiment in his speech at the 2024 conference of its sister organization, the Association of Classical Christian Schools, saying, “We are a cultural munitions factory.”

Wilson co-founded the Association of Classical Christian Schools in 1993, and although he is no longer on the board or staff, he retains a close relationship with the group, regularly giving the keynote at its conferences, writing forwards and guides to many of its curricular materials, and attending one or two board meetings each year.

The Iowa Department of Education lists the group among its “approved independent accrediting agencies” for nonpublic (private) schools. Families with a child enrolled in an accredited private school are eligible to receive funding through an Educational Savings Account, better known as Iowa’s school voucher program.

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.

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

The Iowa Board of Regents is working with board staff and state universities to analyze diversity, equity and inclusion programs and positions and ensure their compliance under a state law set to take effect next summer.

President Sherry Bates said during the September 19 board meeting that she, along with Regents Greta Rouse, David Barker, and JC Risewick started this summer ensuring compliance with both DEI directives put in place by the board and Senate File 2435 at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa.

Nick Covington is an Iowa parent who taught high school social studies for ten years. He is also the co-founder of the Human Restoration Project, an Iowa educational non-profit promoting systems-based thinking and grassroots organizing in education.

In 2022, following a long culture war fight in my own suburban Iowa school district, I resigned from a job I had held for a decade as a high school social studies teacher. When I eventually wrote about these experiences publicly, the feedback I got from students and parents was overwhelmingly positive and supportive, but the most frequent response I got was, “I had no idea all of this was happening.”

Two years ago, we were just beginning to understand what was unfolding in Iowa schools and repeated across the country. It was happening quietly and in isolated pockets, which gave plausible deniability to the idea that this wasn’t an organized, systematic effort to dismantle public education and punish those who refused to go along with it.