Hey, DOGE, leave Iowa schools alone

At long last, Gov. Kim Reynolds’ Iowa Doge Task Force has spoken.

You may recall Reynolds appointed the task force of mostly business leaders as a tribute to President Donald Trump and his damn-near-trillionaire frenemy Elon Musk, who led the federal Department of Government Efficiency.

You may also remember Musk bragged DOGE would cut $2 trillion from federal spending. His minions made a very dramatic show of disrupting federal agencies while gaining access to their data.

Not only did D.C. DOGE not save $2 trillion, but it also remains an open question whether it truly reduced federal spending at all. Maybe $1.4 billion or maybe zero. But in the category of political theatrics, it deserves an Oscar.

Reynolds’ Iowa DOGE was appointed to find ways to make state government more cost-effective and efficient. A huge chunk of its recommendations released this past week are about changing the way Iowa public schools operate.

Iowa DOGE recommends establishing a “merit-based” teacher compensation system with bonuses and incentives tied to “outcomes.”

“Iowa’s current model does not financially distinguish between high-impact teachers and ineffective ones, potentially failing to reward excellence and risking the loss of top talent. Adopting a robust, performance-based teacher compensation system would address this by identifying, rewarding and retaining high-performing teachers to drive instructional excellence,” Iowa DOGE argues.

Iowa DOGE recommends an “outcome-based” school funding framework which “refocuses K-12 funding on results that matter for Iowa’s economy and students’ futures.” An online “dashboard” would track how education dollars are spent “ distinguishing administrative versus classroom expenditures alongside key student outcome metrics.”

Iowa DOGE also recommends that small school districts, with fewer than 500 students, be required to “ participate in shared-service arrangements or make other arrangements.”

“Analysis by the working group found that districts with only average-size budgets — but higher student performance and ACT scores — delivered the strongest ROI, whereas simply spending more money did not necessarily mean better results,” Iowa DOGE contends.

Some of this stuff is OK. Some of it is not. But I have a counterproposal.

Please, for Lord’s sake, leave our besieged public schools alone. Also, give them the state funding they need. See? It’s so simple.

What a novel concept. Consider that, maybe, superintendents and other educators are not lying when they say they need at least a 4 percent increase in state supplemental aid to cover rising costs.

So, spending more money will not make schools better? How would we know?

In the past six years, annual inflation has averaged 3.9%. But the highest percentage growth approved by lawmakers was 3 percent for Fiscal Year 2024. Most years it’s been at or around 2 percent.

So, like school leaders across Iowa have been saying until they’re blue in the face, state aid is not keeping up with actual needs and expenses.

And here’s a news flash — improving technology education, expanding workforce prep programs, delivering teacher bonuses, tracking spending for a dashboard and installing “AI-based route optimization” for school buses are all going to cost money. Previous attempts at pay for performance fizzled due to a lack of long-term funding.

These are folks who are constantly arguing that government should run like a business. OK, how many businesses could stay afloat if revenue was less than inflation?

Also, public schools have taken a demoralizing political beating in recent years.

Do you remember teachers’ “sinister agenda” to harm kids uncovered in 2022 by then-Senate President Jake Chapman? He really got the anti-public schools crusade rolling.

Throughout the 2022 election cycle, Reynolds campaigned on the idea that public schools are handing out porn. It’s so bad, Reynolds gave parents state money to leave the public school hellscape and enroll their kids in private, probably religious, schools.

Hey, but, eventually, she raised teacher pay, despite that sinister agenda.

“Thanks?” Iowa teachers responded.

The GOP Legislature followed Reynolds’ lead and became an all-powerful school board.

They decided which books should be removed from school libraries. They forbade teachers from discussing anything that has to do with LGBTQ people. Apparently, their lives are too shameful to mention. Lawmakers pushed schools to stop offering support to transgender kids. And don’t even get them started on bathrooms.

They wanted to tell teachers how to teach history and civics. “Patriotic education,” they call it. Whitewashed history is more accurate.

Lesson 1, kids, strong nations don’t hide their past.

Reynolds went after Area Education Agencies, which are crucial in providing educational services and resources, especially to rural school districts. Hundreds of AEA employees across Iowa abandoned the sinking ship.

The list goes on and on. It’s like you need to use “AI-based route optimization” to keep track of all the great education ideas.

Public schools have been a constant target of conservative derision for years. A party that once championed local control has delivered state edicts from on high. Private schools, don’t you know, are way better.

Our teacher shortage shows no sign of easing. Weird.

After weathering that onslaught, public schools have earned the right to get a break from more tinkering under the Golden Dome of Wisdom, now redder than an F scrawled on a ChatGPT research paper.

Give districts the 4 percent they want. Let’s throw more money at schools and see what happens. That’s radical, I know, but it just might work.

Provided with adequate funding, I bet Iowa’s education professionals will adopt more innovative programs, use new technology and deploy cutting-edge teaching methods. And yes, don’t worry business types, they’ll provide an education more than adequate to turn kids into corporate drones.

It’s true, K-12 funding is about 42% of the state’s general fund budget. But it’s been roughly 40% of the budget for decades. This is not due to GOP generosity.

Unfortunately, it will be much tougher to find 4 percent now that billions of dollars of tax cuts are gobbling up state revenues. The budget squeeze for public schools got even tighter with the creation of scholarships for private schools, which will cost the state more than $300 million this year.

This isn’t the war in Gaza. We should be able to negotiate a truce. Republicans can agree to a cease fire. Teachers won’t have to fear what lawmakers will cook up next.

It could result in a Nobel Peace Prize. You never know.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com