By Jenny Schulz, Cedar Rapids; Kids First Law Center executive director My dad was a high school teacher. Once, school kids threw a rock through our living room window. The “Party Crew of 1982” spraypainted our house and car. My dad took it in stride and said, “Kids will be kids.” He understood kids misbehave […]
Iowa Education
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Reading is so important, but…’: Iowa House panel advances expanded ban on gender, sexuality materials in schools
The House Education Committee moved forward Wednesday with legislation that would prohibit instruction and materials on gender identity and sexual orientation for all K-12 students. HF 2121, approved 14-9, is an expansion of the 2023 ban on programs, material, instruction, surveys and questionnaires and “promotion” related to gender identity and sexual orientation for K-6 students. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘They said they’re going to break our spirits’: Summer campers toiled in the Iowa heat, endured abuse from church leaders at Shiloh
Titus Walker lived in Hawaii, but he flew to rural Iowa for summer camp. Growing up in an insular church community in the 1980s, it was a blast to hang out with kids his age, even if the Young Adult School of Prophets (YASP) wasn’t much of a vacation. “They would take us out into the fields below Shiloh,” the church’s township south of Kalona, Walker recalled. “At the time it was just plagued with these thorny-ass rose bushes. And we would remove rose bushes all day long.”
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa Senate Education Committee OKs bill to change anti-bullying code
The Iowa Senate Education Committee approved legislation Monday to change state law defining bullying in schools, keeping it alive ahead of this week’s committee deadline. The panel also sent five other bills to the Senate floor dealing with topics ranging from National Guard scholarships to attendance policies. The anti-bullying legislation was the only bill that […]
Posted inCommunity/News
State plans to remove references to climate change and evolution from Iowa’s science education standards
The Iowa Department of Education (DOE) wants to remove references to climate change and biological evolution from the science education standards in the state’s middle and high schools. The state’s current science teaching standards were adopted in 2015, and closely follow the Next Generation Science Standards that are in use in 20 states and the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Every book removed from Iowa schools (so far) in response to SF 496
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed SF 496 into law in May, after it was pushed through the Iowa Legislature with only Republican votes. Among the bill’s provisions is a requirement that school districts remove all books with “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act” except for approved science or health class texts. It also prohibits […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
‘There’s a difference between a safe space and a brave space’: Q&A with Waukee GSA leader Naomi Pittman
Rarely are a student’s biggest bullies the governor and legislature of their state. But that’s the case for many queer K-12 students in Iowa, who are now subject to several laws passed by Iowa’s legislature and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds. Plenty of adults and talking heads will gladly share their opinions, but it’s young […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Contact Buzz: Short-changing education will cost Iowa everything
“We must create a climate where people agree that human beings are more alike than unalike. The only way to do that is through education.” —Maya Angelou Education. A word rife with possibility, capable of triggering memories of a person’s most foundational moments. Today, it has become a malleable lump of social and political clay, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Amid an anti-LGBTQ culture war in Iowa schools, the GSA is a safe space — with constitutional protections
If you’ve seen a student-organized drag show or queer rights protest over the past couple decades, odds are a GSA is behind it. GSAs — gender-sexuality alliances — serve as both social clubs and advocacy orgs for LGBTQ students, those questioning their identity and straight, cisgender allies in middle school, high school and college, and […]
Posted inStatewide
Iowa’s broad new law for schools prohibiting books with sex lands nearly 400 titles on Urbandale’s ban list, including sexless LGBTQ children’s books
The impact of a bill Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law on May 26, which has provisions banning certain books from schools and certain topics from being mentioned in K-6 classes, is beginning to be felt around the state. SF 496 requires schools to remove all books with “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The new state laws affecting LGBTQ students this fall
In many important ways, the bills passed by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds this year that targeted transgender students echoed the law enacted last year banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ or women’s sports at schools or colleges in Iowa. Like the sports ban, the new laws […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Des Moines Public School’s new superintendent is a former special ed teacher, principal and Olympic athlete
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox. The Des Moines Public School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to appoint Dr. Ian Roberts as the district’s new superintendent. Roberts will be the first person of color to lead the state’s […]
