'Iowa ... a place to grow?' Not anymore

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Now many Iowans don’t recognize their own state. “Iowa Nice,” has been transformed by GOP leadership, into “Iowa, We Have Power. Too Bad About You.” One place this is evident, is their treatment of public schools and public-school educators.

Since 2011, when Republicans gained a majority in the House, they’ve created a school funding drought. Ten of the last 11 years, State Supplemental Aid has been less than 3 percent. In 2022, with Republicans screaming about 7 percent inflation and with over a billion dollars in reserve, they allocated just 2.5 percent for schools.

In 2017, with freshly minted majorities in both chambers, and without a word during campaigns, Republicans, rammed through the gutting of Iowa’s 43-year-old, public sector bargaining law.

Under the new law, educators can bargain only starting salary. All other contract provisions can be unilaterally removed or put into an employee handbook, that can be changed by board action with two votes. Now, a school board’s first bargaining offer can be its final one. Some districts did the right thing, many didn’t.

Then with the pandemic still claiming thousands of lives, Gov. Kim Reynolds decided one size fit all, and local control didn’t matter, as she ordered all schools to reopen. It wasn’t safe for kids or educators. But for Reynolds and her acolytes, politics trumped science. Educators began to look for the exits, and substitute teachers valued staying alive more than a $15 an hour job.

...https://www.thegazette.com/guest-columnists/iowa-a-place-to-grow-not-anymore/