What I know about Iowa’s public school teachers

I was a public educator for more than 30 years and am disturbed by the Iowa Legislature’s demonizing of the profession. What is lacking in the educational realm, as always, is respect and trust in the profession.

Public educators are professionally trained and invested in their mission to educate children and youth. Unlike our legislators, they are not willy-nilly elected because they raise the most money. In fact, they are sorely underpaid for the multiple before, after and during school hours they work. Accountability has pushed the paperwork over the wall. How are legislators tested in their accountability? How is it proven that they hold the best concerns for the common good of their constituents?

Teachers could be shot at, get ill, and are at the mercy of administrators, school boards, parents, and, it seems, our legislators and governor. Every single day a teacher walks into a classroom, there is risk.

Teachers are forbidden to accept gifts, by law. What are the under and over the table moneys that our legislators receive in office? Who is monitoring them in the outrageous act of monetary influence?

I understood that the Republicans’ biggest beef was government interference and control of our great Republic. Iowa politics is a miserable example of these very qualities. Petty and punitive, words taught to me by my beloved high school English teacher, best describe their unqualified behavior.

Corinne Stanley

Iowa City