Guest post: Iowa CCI launching Public School Strong

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is launching “Public School Strong” across Iowa. Here’s what it’s all about.

Everywhere you look, you can tell it’s late summer in Iowa. The corn is coming along, beans are filling in, and the State Fair has wrapped up. Our kids and teachers are heading back to classrooms and feeling all the hope, anticipation, and joy that comes with a new school year.

I’m thrilled for our students to learn, explore new ideas, and develop their minds and talents. But I’m also very concerned about Gov. Kim Reynolds’ campaign to defund, dismantle, and privatize our public education system.

All families benefit from fully-funded public schools. They prepare students of all backgrounds, abilities, and identities for their future—regardless of income. They are anchor institutions, essential for living in a multi-cultural democracy. And they’re accountable to the public.

But Reynolds and her statehouse allies don’t see it this way.

They’re waging a war on public education. They’re charging full speed ahead gutting our area education agencies (AEAs), banning thousands of books in classrooms, and taking money away from public schools by expanding private-school vouchers—by 56%—to nearly $200 million this year.

Given the political environment we’re facing, I found much-needed hope and encouragement earlier this month at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) Action’s summer meeting in Ankeny.

There were about 150 of us there. We spent time discussing things we could be doing to advance public education here in Iowa. And we got inspired by our keynote speaker, Dr. James E. Ford—an award-winning educator and national leader in the fight for strong public schools. He helped launch Public School Strong in North Carolina, and it’s grown into a national campaign of parents, educators, students, and community members who are working to promote and strengthen public schools.

Dr. Ford said Reynolds’ war on public education is part of a national playbook that’s being funded by a network of billionaires, including Betsy DeVos (who was Secretary of Education under Trump), Charles Koch, and the Walton Family Foundation.

There’s also a disturbing web of think tanks working nationally to redirect public school funding into private schools. One such group, the American Federation for Children, told CNN they spent $250 million lobbying for private vouchers in recent years—and that’s led to over $25 billion of public funds being transferred to private schools.

Ford also said the battle over public schools isn’t new. When formerly enslaved Black people were gaining rights and educational opportunities during Reconstruction after the Civil War, there was an intense backlash from the political and economic elite. Groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy organized, school district by school district, to ban books they found objectionable.

We need to learn from our history. That’s why we’re launching a Public School Strong campaign across the state. You can learn more about it August 27 or 28 during orientations we’re holding on Zoom. You can sign-up at iowacci.org/pss.

We’ll talk about how to get involved with local school boards and work with them to advance honest, equitable and fully funded public education. And then we’ll start attending school board meetings in September, as part of a national September Surge. Join us as we fight the good fight for public schools here in Iowa!

Barb Kalbach is a fourth-generation family farmer, registered nurse, and board president of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement who lives in Adair County. She can be reached at [email protected].