With just 11 days until the start of the new school year, I’m beginning to panic. There’s still so much to do before the kids head back to class — school supplies need to be purchased, physicals need to be done, eye appointments scheduled, transportation secured, etc.
If you’re a mom, you know the back-to-school drill — it’s chaos, especially if you’re a parent to more than one child. The kids are often in different grades or at different schools. They do different activities and have different friend groups and carpool schedules. I won’t even get into the topic of their varying interest in lunch time fare (seriously, it’s either hot or cold lunch. Just choose one!)
Every year I tell myself that I will start early and avoid the madness, only to end up where I sit today, frantically adding important dates to the calendar and doing some last minute shopping at Amazon.
As I started digging into the school district’s website in search of the lunch menu, physical forms and school supply list, I realized that there was much more to worry about this year than in past years. Thanks to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ top education priorities signed into law earlier this year, we have a whole bunch of new challenges to contend with (never mind Reynolds’ “school choice” bill that’s taking critical funding away from public schools.)
Here are just a few of the things impacting kids as they head back to school this year:
Nicknames — In an effort to keep trans kids from being who they want to be, Iowa legislators passed SF 496, requiring school staff from using a new name or pronoun for a student without written permission from their parents. Additionally, school administrators must report any student requests to their parents or guardians. This also applies to students with longer, more formal names like Alexander. If they want to be called Alex, they’re gonna need permission from mom & dad.
Foreign language — Forget fluency in another language. High schools will only be required to offer two years of a foreign language, instead of four. (SF 391)
Fewer fine arts classes and no financial literacy — SF 391 reduced the number of mandatory fine arts courses offered and no longer requires high schools to teach technology literacy or high schoolers to take on financial literacy to graduate.
Longer work days/times — High schoolers won’t know what to do with their money but they’ll sure have lots of opportunities to earn it. Thanks to SF 542, minors under age 16 can now work until 9 p.m., put in six hours on the job on a school day and work up to 28 hours a week during the school year.
Books — Also in SF 496, Iowa legislators banned books from school libraries that they find “objectionable” and not “age-appropriate.” Many of the books on their hit list contain LGBTQ content. As of today, the Iowa Department of Education has provided no guidance on the books that should be weeded out of the library causing some districts to begin pulling books much to public outcry.
Changing human growth and development curriculum — Another victim of SF 496 — the Iowa Youth Survey will now require parental opt-in for every student. This means less accurate data about drug and alcohol use, violence, sexual activity and mental health among Iowa’s teens. Human growth and development standards have also changed under SF 496, eliminating requirements for teachers to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention and HPV prevention.
Bathrooms — SF 482 effectively bans transgender students (and school staff) from using school restrooms or locker rooms that are consistent with their gender identity. This means any trans person in a school must use the bathroom assigned to their gender at birth.
Guns in cars — In HF 654, Iowans can now legally carry, transport or possess a dangerous weapon in their vehicles. This includes school parking lots.
As the mother of three teenagers, I fail to see how any of the above makes them safer, kinder, more accepting, better educated or informed. Many of the laws championed by Reynolds herself, were made on the premise that they gives parents a greater say in their children’s education, but it applies only the parents who agree with her thinking.
Some would argue that these restrictions are the exact reason why I should send my kids to private school. (There’s that school choice thing again.) But that’s not how my family rolls. My kids have benefitted greatly from their public school education and they will graduate from the district they’ve grown up in. I find it sad that our governor and many of Iowa’s lawmakers want to numb and dumb down the state’s future workforce and it’s future leaders. By passing laws like the ones we saw in the last session, we’re making our rising population less accepting, less aware, and more divided.
Something struck me when I first started following the debate over these bills. When SF 491 was being discussed this spring, Iowa’s Republican lawmakers left in a requirement for high schoolers to be certified in CPR to graduate. I found it odd, at the time, but Rep. Sue Cahill, D-Marshalltown, pointed out its irony in a way I hadn’t.
“In my opinion, the goal of undermining public education has been achieved by the majority party. I have to admit that I’m really glad that we kept in making CPR a graduation requirement. So that when someone does access a gun in the parking lot, our students will know what to do to help those who are injured,” Cahill said.
Touche, Rep. Cahill. Touche.
Understanding the Legislation
There’s definitely a lot to unpack from the laundry list of new Iowa laws. If you’re looking for a way to make heads or tails of the most recent legislation, register for One Iowa/One Iowa Action’s Understanding Anti-LGBTQ Legislation in Education on Monday, Aug. 21 from 6-7:30 p.m.
What Inspires Me?
This college football player who gave up his scholarship to another player so he could pay his tuition (instead of donating plasma to pay for it). This San Diego library that was able to replace all the books taken from a Pride books display by protesters because of an outpouring of donations.
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
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Thanks for hanging in there with the public schools. Parents are going to have to be much more involved to support public schools and teachers so that the radical right can’t accomplish its goal of destroying Iowa’s once proud system.