Public school advocates in Iowa need to be single issue voters

It’s no secret single-issue voters are loud, proud and powerful. They fuel campaigns with rhetoric and resources. When choosing candidates, they focus long-term, and perfect doesn’t stop possible.

That’s how America woke up to find Donald Trump as president, and now a Supreme Court poised to ignore 49 years of precedent by turning back the clock to when women had few rights and only landowning, white, males counted.

Throughout my professional career, I’ve heard educators say, “Yes, public education is important but it’s not the only issue.”

There have been lots of excuses for not putting education first. They sound something like this. “My church says ___________, and I go to Sunday school with these people.”

“You know, my husband has a lot of guns for hunting, and he thinks ____________.”

“I really don’t like politics. I just want to be in my classroom with my kids and teach”

“Politicians are alike. It doesn’t matter what party. They all lie.”

But those excuses are getting lame, as Iowa’s education foundation crumbles, and dedicated, talented educators race for the exits.

I realize this is not a problem educators can solve alone. This is a community crisis, so, it needs a community solution. Anyone, no matter what party, who wants to protect their community school needs to become a loud, proud, single-issue education voter before it’s too late.

There’s nothing wrong with choosing a private school. But if I choose to join a private club to play golf instead of using the public course, should my neighbor pay for my choice? I don’t think so.

Public school supporters need to be at least as persistent and passionate as our single-issue, private-school governor. She has shown her true commitment to private schools in three public ways.

First, she forced the Legislature into a three-week overtime so she could twist some rural Republican arms to force them to choose private schools over public and vote for her school voucher scheme. It didn’t work.

Next, she visited public school superintendents hoping to make them dizzy enough from her spin to publicly support vouchers, even though the plan would steal needed money from the underfunded schools they represent. It’s a little like an unarmed robber asking the bank president to pretty please open the vault and hand him the money. It didn’t work.

Finally, when those moves failed, she decided to impose her will on her party by directly getting involved in some Iowa House races where the incumbent representative refused to knuckle under.

Voters shouldn’t allow that to work either.

This kind of hardball hasn’t been played by an Iowa governor in modern history, but it shows three things. It shows how committed she is to helping private schools, how powerful she thinks she is and how much she has learned from Trump.

If Reynolds is successful in her re-election campaign, she’ll take another swing at retooling her voucher plan. Even without a crystal ball, I predicted the third revision will be worse than the other two combined, because to pass it, she’ll l need to broaden who’ll qualify. She also will need to appease rural lawmakers where there’s no private school within driving distance.

So, to sweeten her scheme just enough for 51 votes, I predict, home-schoolers will miraculously become qualified for the voucher. That means fewer standards, less accountability, and more public money spent on a new private entitlement that will never disappear and will only grow.

Remember, the best way to stop a bad politician is when good people vote. Public schools and our future are on the ballot.

Bruce Lear of Sioux City taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until retiring.