Letters to the Editor: Iowa has always invested in students. Now it includes every student.

Educating every Iowa child benefits all of Iowa. Public or private, all schools in Iowa share this mission to promote the common good.

Funding isn’t for schools. It’s for students. By investing in every student, Iowa invests in its future and a network of public and private schools that serve a common good.

This is nothing new. Iowa Tuition Grants, Pell Grants, and the GI Bill cover tuition at private, faith-based universities. SNAP is used at grocery stores. Medicaid follows patients to the hospital they choose, including nonprofit, Catholic systems.

Iowans have long agreed on the principle behind these programs. When a public investment serves a common good, we fund the person and trust families to choose. Education Savings Accounts bring that principle to K-12 education. Investing in all students benefits all of Iowa.

With the Students First Act, the state supports every student attending accredited public and non-public schools. For Iowans who believe more state dollars should be invested in students, ESAs have provided an answer.

The State Auditor’s Office found no irregularities in the ESA program. The audit projected that ESAs allowed 8,838 new students to enroll in non-public schools by 2025-2026. About $70 million followed them to their school of choice. Same students. Same funding.

More than 41,000 students received an ESA last year. For each, the state will send an average of $1,656 in annual supplemental funding to the student’s local public school district, even if they’ve never set foot in the public school.

In this way, ESAs are generating $68 million in new supplemental funding for public schools, essentially offsetting money that followed students to non-public schools. It’s not zero sum. Iowa increased investment in education while minimizing the net impact on public schools.

For perspective, “millions” sounds big, but ESAs account for less than 4% of total government funding to Iowa education.

What’s truly big is the impact on underserved students. Our enrollment rose about 3% this year. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility grew 10%, English learners 10%, and students of color 6%. We welcome diverse learners with academic, behavior, and special education needs. ESAs help pave their path.

Accredited non-public schools educate roughly one in 10 Iowa students, and we take that trust seriously. We’re educating one in 10 future scientists, doctors, artists, business owners, neighbors, and parents. Catholic or non-Catholic, we educate the full child: mind, body, and spirit. We teach respect, courtesy, morality, and the value of every person as children of God.

To ensure accessibility, Catholic school tuition has always been among the most affordable, but the landscape and our cost to educate have changed. Facilities need updates, classrooms require new technology, and when Iowa’s public schools raised teacher pay, so did we.

It’s difficult not to take offense at suggestions this money is being used inappropriately, but ESAs ensure the state’s network of schools remains strong.

We’re proud to serve alongside our public school colleagues to develop the future citizens of Iowa, and that’s worth investing in.

Amy Conlon, Superintendent of Schools, Archdiocese of Dubuque

Donna Bishop, Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Des Moines

Lynne Devaney, Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Davenport

Dora Jung, Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Sioux City

Educator opposed to tax amendment

I am a retired school superintendent who is deeply concerned about Amendment One. On election day, Iowans will be asked to change our state constitution so that it’s much harder for our state to increase corporate or personal income taxes. This may sound great. But instead of a simple majority vote, a two-thirds supermajority would be required to raise income taxes. Seventeen senators (out of 50) or 34 house members (out of 100) would have veto power allowing a small minority to dictate how we address our state’s financial challenges. This will make it difficult for Iowans to create a fair tax system where corporations and the rich pay their fair share.

I have three more reasons why Amendment One is wrong for Iowa now and in the future. First, it’s a gift to large corporations and wealthy Iowans. They already receive numerous breaks and should contribute their fair share. If they don’t, it will be difficult for the state to take in enough money to pay our bills. Smaller income tax revenues have contributed to our current deficit spending and there is concern we may run out of funds in the next two years.

The second reason is that the amendment will hurt our communities. After years of tax cuts favoring the wealthy, Iowa is now running deficits of over $1 billion. Amendment One will make it difficult to fix our state budget without further cutting money for public schools, public safety, health care and other services and addressing priorities like water quality. All of these must be funded adequately if our state is to grow.

My final concern is that everyday Iowans will pay more, not less, if this passes. Remember Amendment One applies only to the income tax. All other taxes will have to be increased to try to balance the budget. These include sales taxes, property taxes, license and other fees, and college tuition. Sales taxes could jump from 7%, including the local option sales tax, to 11.4% or even 14%. This will add up quickly when we buy gas or get car repair work done. Groceries may also be taxed. No one wants to see these taxes skyrocket when inflation is already a real problem.    

Amendment One will hinder Iowans’ ability to move forward and it’s wrong for our state. What can you do? Please give this some thought and share your concerns with family members and friends. We rejected this idea in 1999, and we must do it again. Missouri just voted this down so let’s join them and say NO.

Fred Maharry, West Des Moines; former superintendent of the Alta Community School District

Support for Grau

I’m reaching out to express my support for Democrat Tom Grau in his bid for the Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors. I’ve known Tom since we crossed paths back in the late 1970s when I was the County Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency in Pocahontas County. While working on the farm with his father, Leo, Tom was deeply engaged in agricultural and rural community issues at the local, county, state, and national levels.

Later, I served as State FSA Administrative Officer in Des Moines. As presidential administrations changed, so did the presidential appointments to lead the agency in each state. During my career, I worked with seven different Iowa FSA State Executive Directors, including Tom Grau.

Tom served as Iowa FSA Director during the first four years of the Clinton administration. In the second term, Secretary Dan Glickman appointed him USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Agriculture. I share this background because I’ve seen Tom’s leadership and achievements up close while working on various issues. He’s a true team player — always focused on “We” rather than “Me.” Whether it’s his recent role as Executive Director of the Pocahontas County Economic Development Commission or as Membership and Outreach Director for Storm Lake United, Tom consistently demonstrates that he’s got your back. Casting your vote for Tom Grau for Buena Vista County Supervisor is really a vote for you.

Dennis Olson, Urbandale

Brenna Bird vs. Meta

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has bragged that she settled a State of California lawsuit against META, winning roughly $126,000,000 for the state of Iowa or $38 per resident. The settlement totaled almost $18 billion. Had Iowa actually participated in the California federal court suit, perhaps our state would receive as much as those who did, like Nebraska’s $201 million or $100 per resident. 

In October 2023, the state of California and 32 other states filed a suit against META Platforms, Inc. in the Northern District of California. Iowa was not one of them. California’s Attorney General did not invite her to participate in the suit, possibly because she had sued California over its single-use plastics law. The META case proceeded through federal court for three years while AG Bird sat by doing nothing, except suing the Biden Administration and other states over issues that didn’t really benefit most Iowans. It is fair to assume that Iowa was included in the California case settlement because META wanted to clean up as many pending lawsuits as it could.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird waited until April 14, 2026, to file a separate suit in Polk County District Court against META Platforms, Inc. AG Bird played no part in achieving the settlement, other than naming herself as plaintiff in a suit in Polk County District Court and her subsequent unwarranted boast that it was she who won the case against META.

Of the $126 million Iowa is to receive, Bird says $25,000,000 will be available to pay the actual victims of META Platforms and Facebook a paltry sum of $100 each, hardly enough to pay for the gas to the therapy treatments a child might need — an insult to the families victimized by META Platforms or its allies. It shows how little she cares about the Iowans she was elected to represent, especially since she will have over $41 million to play with if she gets re-elected.

Bird announced that the remaining $41,361,128.36 will be allocated to five new organizations she created:

• $11,000,000 to establish the “Iowa Kids and Consumers Defense Fund” for “consumer enforcement,”
• $10,000,000 to establish the “Protect Iowa Students Grant Fund” to make grants to schools and other organizations including school enforcement and school resource officers training,
• $10,000,000  to establish the “Iowa Digital Rescue and Prosecution Fund” to among other things create a Special Victims Unit within the Attorney General’s office,
• $3,000,000  for an “Iowa Digital Rescue and Prosecution Fund” to modernize technology used by the Iowa Attorney General’s office, and
• $7,336,128.36 to establish the “Ensuring Child Safety Online Fund” to be used to address the harms related to social media (this amount is required under the settlement agreement). 

As specified in the Consent Judgment filed in Polk County District Court on Sept. 11, 2026, all of such organizations will be fully controlled by Attorney General Brenna Bird, as long as she remains in office. Based on AG Bird’s prior record of cavalierly suing Democratic governors and states, as well as Democratic administrations, it is doubtful she can be trusted to confine her use of those funds to fully benefit Iowa victims, the organizations that serve them, and to prevent future abuses by social media companies. 

The attorney general announced that $49,000,000 will go to the state’s general fund, leaving $10,638,871.64 unaccounted for. AG Bird has made no mention how much Iowa taxpayers are on the hook for fees to four Washington, D.C., attorneys from the firm of Cooper & Kirk, whose partners charge in the range of $1,000 per hour, except for their managing partner, David Thompson, whose fees are around $2,000 per hour. Has AG Bird committed Iowans to pay over $10 million in fees to the attorneys she hired for merely four filings to the court?

Cooper & Kirk filed Iowa’s suit April 14, 2026, in Polk County District Court. In August, they filed a resistance to META Platform’s Motion to Dismiss with exhibits. Then, Aug. 26, 2026, Cooper & Kirk attorneys filed a request with META to approve a settlement. On Sept. 11, 2026, they filed a Consent Judgment. They did not appear in the case filed in Federal court by the State of California and 32 other states where the Meta settlement was actually negotiated on the eve of trial.

Transparency and honesty are not Attorney General Brenna Bird’s strong suit. Though commercials claim her Democratic opponent never tried a legal case in court, a search of Iowa Courts online finds AG Bird hasn't either. Iowans should elect Nate Willems to replace her and put an end to her self-serving grandstanding.

Dennis Naughton, Cedar Rapids

I beg you all, please stop the political attack ads!

Election season brings political campaign ads. Endless campaign ads. Relentless, non-stop, repeated, incessant metal spikes driven directly into our skulls.

Honest, sincere campaign ads that present a candidate’s views and intentions serve a public good. They build name recognition and help voters make informed choices.

But why must candidates subject us to their badmouthing each other ad nauseam? Where’s the public value in calling an opponent “radical” or “liberal?” Who are these messages intended for? How does putting another person down make a candidate more electable? Is there evidence that these ads persuade voters to support a candidate? Or do they serve only to reinforce biases? Do they inform voters? Or just make candidates feel better about themselves? 

I don’t like seeing attack ads from any candidate, whether I’ll vote for them or not. Attack ads have become so tedious that I stopped listening altogether. For any candidate. With any message. Positive or negative. I mute the volume, look away, or leave the room until they’re over.

Is this the best use of campaign funds? How does throwing money away on ads voters ignore or that turn voters off to a candidate’s message benefit anyone?

Candidates who can’t win without jabbing at opponents are probably not strong candidates to start with.

Do better, candidates! Voters deserve civility, honesty, and respect.

Gordie Felger, Hiawatha

Increase school aid 5%

There are very few truly nonpartisan issues here in Iowa. Keeping our public schools strong should be a priority for everyone. With 91% of Iowa students enrolled in public schools, it is time for all of us to voice support for our children and grandchildren.

The state of Iowa has underfunded public schools for decades, averaging just a 2% annual increase of state supplemental aid (SSA) since 2012. The inflation rate alone has averaged 4%. State support per student has effectively dropped approximately $1,209 dollars since 2017, and even greater losses among special education students, averaging over $2,000 per student.

Keeping public schools strong is not explicitly opposed to private schools. Public schools like the Algona Community Schools and private schools like Bishop Garrigan have existed in harmony, sharing buses, classes and sports participation. However, since the private school voucher bill passed in Iowa, 40% of new schools taking funds are private for-profit systems and academies.

Unfortunately, the Legislature did not provide any source of funding for ESAs beyond the general fund; it put funding for public schools in competition with private schools and religious schools. From 2023-2026, the cost of the program was over $700 million.

What can you do? Thank your local school board members for serving. Ask every political candidate how they propose to support strong public schools. Ask your current State Representative and Senator to set state supplemental aid (SSA) at 5% for the next five years.

Mark Davis, Algona

Missing the ‘golden era’

I was educated K-12 in Iowa’s Public Schools during the “Golden Era” — the days when Iowa’s schools lead the Nation, when we bragged openly that Iowa was # ONE in Public Education.

I’m proud of my life-long career in Public Education, serving in every size school district. Everywhere, I was part of a team dedicated to educating our future citizens, and devoted to advancing the learning of every student.

Over the past 20 years, budgetary constraints that are the result of underfunding public education, have forced Iowa schools to make extremely difficult choices. The Algona School district has had to trim staff in almost all departments, resulting in fewer course offerings and larger class sizes. Last spring, only a fraction of district retirees were replaced.

The district has survived because of conservative budgeting, disciplined management, and careful long-term planning. And yet one has to wonder how long the district can continue without increased funding.

Iowa’s Legislature has been under-funding Public Schools for two decades. The cruelest blow came in 2023 when Governor Reynolds signed into law Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs). On Feb. 24, 2026, her office estimated Iowa could spend $349.6 million on ESAs for the coming school year, with zero transparency and no oversight.

This election cycle, please support candidates that support “Public School Strong,” supporting a 5% increase in state funding for Iowa’s public school students. Vote thoughtfully and accordingly, and uphold our responsibility to educate Iowa’s future leaders!

Janie Montang, Algona

Fix this mess and vote!

I’ll bet I can guess the first person you think of when you read this quote by Booker T. Washington, “Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity.” I’d double down on the second one by Voltaire, “Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit atrocities.” And anyone who doesn’t think storming the Capitol of the United States isn’t an atrocity is in my book a traitor. And then to pardon the criminals is totally against the rule of the law.  A true patriot loves their country always and the government when they deserve it. If you think this government deserves anything I feel sorry for you.

Rich Republican congressmen only care about holding on to their jobs so they can be bigger millionaires. They don’t care about the average guy or women or minorities or anyone but themselves, just like Trump. If all people I just mentioned voted Democrats into Congress we would be able to balance and then straighten out this country for the benefit of all, not just the rich few.

Do you like high prices, healthcare that gets worse all the time, and the fact he started an illegal war that has put us in a situation that is worse than it was before? Trump started it and doesn’t know how to get out of it.

It is time to quit asking when government is going to do something and look in the mirror and ask when are you going to do something and vote Democrats in to fix this inhuman mess.

Dave Haynes, Duncombe

Larger than life MAGA myths

Two great myths are being foisted on America by the current administration: the criminal immigrant story, and the election fraud story.

Immigrants to American shores are said to largely be composed of the criminal refuse emptied out from other countries. Many unbiased studies have shown, and the government’s own statistics show, that the great majority of recent immigrants here are law-abiding folks.

The election fraud story says that Democrats, immigrants and criminals are stealing elections away from the MAGA party. Many unbiased studies have shown, and the government’s own officials have shown, that election fraud is so small it cannot affect elections in the United States.

All of this reminds of a huge incident that came out of a similar period of conflict between two political factions in post-Reformation England. Anglican Protestants said that Catholics started the fire that virtually destroyed London in 1666. Catholics were persecuted for decades, until finally it was settled that the fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane.

Myths can rule like tyrants for lengthy periods of time, until cooler heads straighten things out. Isn’t it about time these two MAGA myths were put to bed?

Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah