Tiara Mays-Sims’ passion for public education spurred by her family

For Tiara Mays-Sims, the recent changes to public education in Iowa from the Republican-controlled legislature—especially with Area Education Agencies—are deeply personal.

A mother of twins, Mays-Sims noticed early-on that her son wasn’t meeting developmental milestones, so she moved to a town and school district where she knew he could get the help he needed. The quality of local schools and child services offered in Johnston drew her down from Ames 10 years ago.

Since then, Mays-Sims has become a part of a community focused on education—the Johnston Community School District in particular—and she’s running for the Iowa House to defend the public schools and AEAs, which help many children with special needs, that serve Johnston’s students.

Voters tell her all the time that public education is a top issue, alongside reproductive rights and the economy.

“People have been really turned off by our representative wanting to take public money and put it into private schools. Not only is that disastrous for the entire state, but it doesn’t have any place in our district. We don’t have a private school here,” Mays-Sims said. “I found that many people have taken that personally.”

Her main opponent, Republican State Rep. Eddie Andrews, voted for the private school voucher bill, the bill that changed how AEAs serve students, and the near-total abortion ban.

Mays-Sims is running on repealing both of the education bills and the abortion ban. Instead, she wants to strengthen education with better funding and address Iowa’s maternal health care deserts.

“As quickly as they put that ban in place is as quickly as we can get it out of place,” she said, about the near-total abortion ban. The vouchers could be tricker if they aren’t addressed soon, she added.

“I think we’re still early enough right now in the voucher system to really entertain the fact of dispelling the whole thing,” she said. “But if it lasts much longer, we’ll be forced into a place where we can’t entertain the idea of getting rid of it.”

In 2022, Mays-Sims was elected to serve on the Heartland Area Education Agency Board of Directors, and she said changes to AEAs need to be reversed, while funding for programs like special education and media service should be increased.

“Our legislature should be more representative of the people that live in Iowa,” she said. 

Because of her son, Mays-Sims has filled out a lot of applications for assistance, and she said the process is time-consuming and it requires a lot of paperwork.  

“That’s also why I decided to run … I may not know what it was like filling out a Medicaid application if it wasn’t for him,” she said. “I just think that we need somebody at the Capitol to be able to say that paperwork is ridiculous.”

Mays-Sims is committed to education in part because of her parents. Her father was a college professor and her mother was adamant about her and her sister getting good educations. 

They first moved to Des Moines from Detroit, Michigan because her dad got a job teaching at Drake University. But they stayed because Mays-Sims and her sister suddenly had more opportunities than they did in Detroit. 

“My parents just saw that this was the space that we needed to be in to thrive,” she said. “They really enjoyed the school system and the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities.”

Outside of the voucher bill and the near-total abortion ban, many of the voters Mays-Sims talks to don’t follow state politics.

During one door-knocking experience, Mays-Sims said a voter asked her for one thing.

“She said, ‘When you get to the Capitol, if you promise to try and work from both sides, I’ll vote for you.’ I’m like, ‘I can promise you that, because we can’t get anything done without each other,’” Mays-Sims said.

And she knows what she wants to try to work on with Republicans.

“I want to really get up there and find ways to get more money into the pockets of those that really could use that boost,” she said.

Andrews and other Republicans talk about cutting taxes, but Mays-Sims doesn’t think that’s enough.

“Instead of promising to eliminate property tax—which you can’t get done—our governor has bragged and touted on that surplus that we’re sitting on. Let’s ask her to start funneling some of that down,” she said.

“Let’s invest in water quality, parks, grants for farmers so that they can start practicing different methods to keep runoff out of water, our education system, more public land, feeding our kids.”

Tiara Mays-Sims at a glance

Name: Tiara Mays-Sims

Position: Iowa House Representative for District 43

Residence: Johnston

Education: Iowa State University, Master’s degree in business administration

Experience: Board of Directors of the Heartland Area Education Agency, on the board of the Red Cross Central Iowa, Vice Chair of the Iowa Democratic Black Caucus

Family: Husband, twins (a son and a daughter)

What she likes to do with (limited) free time: spend time with her kids, traveling with her daughter (has been to 37 out of 50 states), roller skating, watch movies (a little bit of everything, currently watching a lot of biopics.)