Bad ideas shouldn’t become bad laws

Many of us have experienced planning committees where loud, big idea people dominate. They’re the ones who believe all their ideas are gold and they’re not shy about sharing their genius. They have 50 ideas an hour, and 49 of those should be trashed.

I understand the rules for brainstorming. “There are no bad ideas.” But many of those ideas should die a natural death.

But sometimes that doesn’t work.

Often loud, big idea people fall in love with their own thoughts, or worse, they fall in love with ideas from somewhere else they just know will work.

When that happens, big ideas become bad ideas quickly implemented because there’s not a brave leader to halt it. The rest of the group just goes along to get along.

Now, imagine those big, bad, ideas aren’t just ideas. They’re laws.

Welcome to both chambers of the Iowa Legislature where moderation and the Republican doctrine of small government go to die. Where bad ideas become bad laws.

In 2017, Republicans finally captured the majority in both chambers. Then Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix said, “The message that I’m taking from the voters is that they expect us-for lack of a better term, to kick the door in.”

They “kicked the door in” and Iowa public schools were hit with the shrapnel. From 2017 forward, Republican legislators have been drunk on “Their mandate.”

Their first big, bad idea was gutting public sector collective bargaining. This one was borrowed from Wisconsin, and they doubled down by also obliterating the teacher termination law. They did it quickly and mostly behind closed doors, with no input from the education family.

But that was just the beginning of the door kicking.

After 2017, attacking public schools became the main auditioning stage for politicians trying to gain favor with the MAGA movement. Gov. Kim Reynolds pushed through an expensive, expansive, and unregulated private school voucher scheme, and sewed doubt in public schools by targeting what she regarded as “pornographic books.” If Iowa had a referendum system neither would have been passed because they’re incredibly unpopular with voters.

Senate File 496 banned books from school curriculum and libraries with “descriptions or depictions of sexual acts.” In a 2022, a Courier Newsroom Data for Progress Survey, found a whopping 76% said, “Banning books at schools is a form of censorship and goes against American values of freedom of speech and expression”

In another Data for Progress 2022 poll, 60% of Iowans opposed the state funded scholarships for students attending private schools.

But the borrowed, or brainstormed, bad ideas keep coming.

There’s no doubt abortion remains a polarizing topic. Senate File 175 would force public, private, and charter schools to show a fetal development video beginning in 5th grade. It appears legislators pushing this are hoping to influence children on the abortion issue.

Most Republican legislators have long opposed sex education in schools. Now, they’re trying to use the class they’ve always hated to politicize 5th graders. They don’t seem to trust parents. It’s a bad law and it takes curriculum meddling to a dangerous level.

There needs to be a check and balance so bad ideas don’t become bad law. That’s why we have elections.

Bruce Lear taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until he retired. He lives in Sioux City. BruceLear2419@gmail.com