A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper
This session the House Higher Education Committee was proud to champion reforms to our universities’ core curriculum requirements, and Gov. Reynolds has now signed the legislation into law. House File 2800 requires every undergraduate student at Iowa’s public universities to complete dedicated courses in American history and government to graduate.
This improvement is both necessary and urgent. A 2024 national survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni exposed shocking gaps in civic knowledge among college students; only 31% knew James Madison is the Father of the Constitution, 60% could not identify the term lengths for U.S. House members and Senators, just 27% correctly identified the Vice President as president of the Senate, only 37% could name John Roberts as Chief Justice, fewer than 23% recognized Lincoln’s words “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” from the Gettysburg Address, and a mere 28% knew the 13th Amendment ended slavery.
These are foundational facts, not trivia. Yet for too long, Iowa’s institutions of higher education have let students satisfy general education requirements with courses far removed from a true liberal arts education. Absurd options for the University of Iowa’s “Understanding Cultural Perspectives” core curriculum requirement, or Iowa State’s “U.S. Cultures and Communities” requirement, include courses such as: “Printmaking and the Politics of Protest,” “Music and Social Change,” “The Science Behind Prejudice,” “The Economics of Discrimination,” “Identity, Diversity, and the Media,” or even “Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.” Meanwhile, graduates never study the history and tradition of our republic.
Iowa students deserve better. Our nation deserves better. As our country prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, HF 2800 ensures Iowa is doing its part. The bill mandates genuine survey courses in American history and government, delivered through dedicated centers such as the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom. Students will now engage in the study of our founding principles instead of ideological electives.
Civic education is not partisan. It equips students to ensure they understand and protect the system that safeguards our rights and freedoms. With HF 2800, Iowa is reaffirming its commitment to strong education by producing not just skilled professionals, but informed citizens ready to uphold the founding principles of our nation as we mark America’s 250th anniversary.
Rep. Taylor Collins, Mediapolis
This ninth article returns to the original format as the others. My hope is that by sharing these stories, we can all get to know our community a little better. I feel thankful to have met so many amazing people in the Storm Lake area who are working hard to build better lives. They are truly remarkable, and I believe their stories deserve to be shared. So, here is the ninth:
We often think we know our neighbors. But how well do we really understand the journeys that brought them here? Some stories are full of joy. Others are marked by loss and challenge. All of them can help us see each other with more understanding. It’s easy to believe the struggles we see on TV, or hear about in the news, only happen far away. But many of those same struggles affect people right here in our community.
The details in this story are changed to protect privacy, but the person is real. They might be standing next to you at the store or waiting in line for coffee. My purpose in sharing these stories is to help us connect with, and feel connected to, the people around us. After all, I believe that when we know each other’s stories, it is harder to hate or harm one another.
In every community, there are stories of strength, resilience, and second chances. One such story belongs to our neighbor.
The ninth community member’s story began in Kansas City, Mo., where she was born. She has always had family in both Storm Lake and Kansas City, so attended elementary school in Storm Lake. After that, she moved back to Kansas City, Mo., until grade 12, when she left school because of her mom’s health and the need for her to work two jobs.
The youngest of seven siblings, this person learned about her home country from others who came from there. In her community people can travel to the United States because of The Compact of Free Association that was established between the USA and her ancestorial homeland. This agreement was established in 1986 for two primary reasons. First, it allows the USA a strategic military position in the Indo-Pacific region. Second, it offers economic development and compensation for the severe loss of life, health, and land caused by extensive nuclear weapons testing.
She also learned that in her home country people will work hard and make only about $2 per hour, but here they can work at Tyson and receive $17 per hour. This allows them to send money home and live a more comfortable life than if they had not moved to the USA. It also leads to most of her community seeing no need for education. Afterall, if you can make $17 per hour what is it that you need an education for? This has resulted in those in her community tending to not value education the same way that others do around them. However, this person sees a different path for herself.
This person returned to Storm Lake when she was 20, and while working at Tyson, saw a flyer about earning her high school equivalency diploma for free. As someone who doesn’t let a good opportunity go by, she signed up for orientation and began taking classes.
In 2019, her mother’s health started to decline, which eventually led to her mother needing help at home. Over the next five years, she was her mother’s primary caretaker. She took her mom to doctor’s appointments and dialysis, help her with her medication and bathing, and assisted her with things around the house since her mother was immobile. Yet, throughout all of it, this person retained the desire to complete her high school education. Despite working two jobs, having a daughter and getting married, she would go to class when she could, and study on her own when she couldn’t. Throughout this time, she began to imagine what it could look like for her to continue her education after high school. At this time, she has completed and passed four of the five tests needed to receive her high school equivalency diploma.
Throughout all of it, she’s continued to want to set an example for those in her community — for her family. To demonstrate to them that getting an education does lead to a higher paying job and greater opportunities. She wants to be and is a role model.
Now that she is close to finishing her high school diploma, she’s begun exploring what her next steps could be. She knows she wants to further her education in an area that will easily allow her to find a job if she were to move away from Storm Lake. After all, she still has family back in Kansas City, Mo., as well as in her home country. So, she’s been considering the fields of education, nursing and most recently accounting, which has piqued her interest because she really likes math.
No matter what her next steps are, she plans to keep in mind that others are watching her to see what doors getting one’s education can open.
She is our neighbor.
Sarah E. Schoper, Storm Lake
As a Northwest Iowan whose family has owned farmland since a year after Custer’s Last Stand, I am seriously worried about the future of a way of life which has sustained Iowa farmers and the world generally.
Although President Trump’s self-proclaimed genius for deal making has been fodder for late night comedy, his recent policies and actions are grievous.
Rash imposition of high tariffs on China has resulted in a retaliatory 76% decline in its purchase of soybeans and a loss for Iowa of about $1.2 billion — so far.
Failing to anticipate Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump launched strikes which killed several leaders and over 100 school children. Iran closed the Strait, thus choking off passage of critical farm inputs of fertilizer and fuel and driving costs to crippling heights.
Trump’s recent “Beans, Beef, and Boeing” trip to China could have boosted the ag economy, but few solid commitments were made, largely because of Trump’s unreliable trade policy and weakened global position due to an ill-conceived war in Iran.
Farmers have learned to mitigate the uncertainties of weather, but Trump’s penchant for reckless domestic and foreign policy, for self-dealing, for vicious wounded vanity, and an unquenchable thirst for loyalty are new existential threats.
Farmers must arm themselves with the resolve of their ancestors and vote this November in their own financial interests. Their tradition of conservative Republican voting must, at least this time, bow to the preservation of their legacies.
Karen Heidman, Sioux City
We continue reading about the effects of human-caused climate change, yet our actions to address it are falling short, and some of us continue ignoring climate scientists.
As we humans dominated nature for centuries, we destroyed the basis for life for countless other species — plant and animal. We have gone so far in our effort to treat Earth as nothing but a resource that we threaten our own existence. I
In 1624 John Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself: every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...” What Donne may not have known is that “the man” includes all life, not just humans. We do not exist apart from nature. We could not have risen to our current level of consciousness without all the other life we grew up with and depended upon. We must respect the needs of our fellow species, plant and animal, or our own species will not survive what we have done and are doing to Mother Nature.
John Hamilton, South Bend, Ind.
The wind blows and the weather shifts radically. The forest burns and is renewed. But America the faithless, America the underworked and over-stimulated just keeps plodding along in ignorance and violence while the republic sinks into oblivion.
We have amber alerts on child abduction, but no warning system on the systematic destruction of rule of law.
Our people are so backward, bigoted, and besotted with commercials, most could not come even close to putting together the shooting at San Diego Islamic Center with our President’s anti-Islam political rhetoric since he entered public life.
Trump in Iran is like Netanyahu in Gaza and Lebanon. Ceasefire means open fire whenever you feel like it. We don’t get that world affairs no longer reflect the sentiments of nations. They only reflect the personal interests of petty autocrats out of touch with their people. Psst! I’m referring to the rulers of Israel, Iran, and the United States.
Another thing, colleges today are closing almost as fast as newspapers, as America heads blindly and blithely into the western world’s latest version of the medieval Dark Ages.
Eat, drink, and be merry, folks.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here