US Marine and Army veteran Nathan Sage suspended his campaign for US Senate and endorsed Iowa Rep. Josh Turek.
If you live in Iowa, you know public school funding is a hot topic.
Educators warn of a “funding crisis” as state aid lags behind inflation. How much of a lag? State aid is now $888 less per student than it would have been if kept in line with inflation. That’s not $888 of new money—it would have been just enough aid to keep up with current expenses with inflation.
And it seems that things are about to get worse. For the upcoming school year, the Iowa Senate proposed a 1.75% increase in state aid. Gov. Kim Reynolds recommended 2%. Both fall short of the 5% increase requested by the Iowa State Education Association to keep pace with rising costs.
✏️: Salina Heller
Someone in Iowa decorated their car to look like immigration enforcement. It's illegal. And ICE and Border Patrol agents’ own tactics are making it impossible to tell the difference.
Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice's ICE reporting hotline is 515-505-8805.
Workers are leaving Iowa in droves. One Iowan confronted Republican lawmakers about how striking state affirmative action policies and allowing for discrimination in professional licensure would only make the problem worse.
John Deere has recalled 245 workers in Iowa after mass layoffs. They'll be back on the job this month and next.
Iowa already banned over 3,000 books from school libraries. Now lawmakers want to make sure kids can't get to the public library either.
Iowa Mennonites and supporters joined nationwide protests calling for Target, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, to publicly oppose the violent actions of ICE and federal agents in Minnesota.
Mennonite Action, a national organization with local chapters in Johnson, Washington, and Iowa counties, has been organizing to call for an end to the military occupation of Palestine. The “Sing Down the Doors at Target” protests were also meant to link “military-style” violence in America and Palestine.
“We are distraught by the hijacking of Christianity to justify hate and division,” Aliese Gingerich of First Mennonite Church of Iowa City said in a press release. “Christian nationalism is not Christlike. It has nothing to do with the teachings and the example of Jesus Christ, who called us to love our neighbor and to care for the vulnerable—from Palestine to Minnesota to Iowa City.”
Students at Waukee and Trailridge staged a walkout Friday to protest the Trump administration and ICE. Xavier Carrigan, Democratic candidate for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, joined them in support.
Iowa Republicans proposed a bill to ban partnerships between public schools and libraries, which have bridged gaps in rural and urban community access to books. President of the Iowa Library Association Brittany Jacobs explained what reopening those gaps would mean for Iowa communities.
Iowa Republicans advanced a bill that would allow for citizenship status to be used as a reason to deny professional licensure, including in health care. With rural hospital closures, layoffs, and worker shortages abound, Iowans confronted lawmakers about how a bill like that would worsen the state's thinning health care system.
