Judiciary, education and gun rights concerns

I continue to be concerned about the potential changing of the judicial nominating commissions. These changes will inject even more partisanship into our state judiciary by allowing those who are of the majority political party to legislate from the bench. I am hopeful that Gov. Kim Reynolds' office can provide guidance to minimize this impact.

The second issue that concerns me is debate in the Iowa House over allowing minors to hunt with handguns. It seems to me the gun rights lobby has completely lost all sense of reality. We have kids in Florida taking their own lives, but here in Iowa we've got folks trying to get more guns in the hands of kids. I really think the Republican Party has lost all common sense.

Finally, I was disappointed that Reynolds met with U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to continue to look for ways to funnel public money to private schools through vouchers or some other tax credit program. We are setting ourselves up to support two separate school systems and we already give millions to private schools with little accountability. I think the Governor should consider charting a more moderate course and tell the right wing zealots in her party that they need to back off their extreme ideas.

Chris Rolwes

Cedar Rapids