Letter: Defining Branstad’s idea of ‘good shape’

'I feel I'm leaving the state in good shape,” Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (May 21, The Gazette).

By 'good shape” do you mean:

The steady funding decline of our public schools?

Higher tuition and fees for our college students?

Public workers with no voice in their workplace?

Fewer benefits for on-the-job injuries?

Hundreds of our waterways and lakes impaired?

Women's reproductive rights curtailed?

Limited access to family planning?

Huge midyear budget cuts in necessary services?

Mental health facilities closed?

More guns in public spaces and in the hands of children?

Reduced access to voting?

Rapid growth in poorly regulated animal confinements?

Oh, and the ongoing moral, medical and financial disaster of the privatizing of our Medicaid system?

Maybe you meant Iowa is in good shape for its race to the bottom.

Virginia Meyer

Lone Tree