State legislators hold our children in contempt

It’s clear that our governor and many state legislators hold public school teachers in contempt. Whether disinvesting in public education, diverting public funds toward private schools, lowering standards for teacher certification or proposing that teachers should be sued or arrested for curriculum lawmakers call “obscene,” the message is the same: you’re not valued.

Not every politician in our state is as forthright as Sen. Jake Chapman, who claims public education has a “sinister agenda,” or Gov. Kim Reynolds, who equates challenging materials with pornography. But the sequence of bills moving through our Capitol this winter make it clear to any teacher with talent and ambition that they’d better look elsewhere.

What saddens me more than this contempt for our teachers is the contempt in which they hold our children. We hear a lot about empowering families. What about empowering students? Are these politicians and the parents who support them so distrustful of students’ abilities to engage with diverse perspectives, novel situations, and complicated histories? Are they so insecure in the strength of their families, faiths, and communities that they feel their children’s moral compasses will be damaged by encountering expressions of lives lived differently?

I am a teacher and a parent and want an education for my children and my students that is rigorous, challenging and preparatory for life as free and engaged citizens. It’s disappointing to realize that such goals are no longer valued by the state I call home.

Eric Gidal

Iowa City