Iowa has improved education under Republican leadership
In the May 10 Register editorial, author Lucas Grundmeier included education as part of why editorial board members feel Iowa hasn’t gotten better.
I disagree. The Register has a well-known pre-disposition to favor progressive-to-liberal causes, and education is one of them. Many of us disagree with Grundmeier’s takes on education. We think improvements are being made.
A community/state and its people, its public, clearly have a need to educate children. In the United States, I understand, Supreme Court decisions going back to the 1920s provide that parents have primacy within reasonable limits of both authority and responsibility for educating their own children. With that primacy in mind and many parents wondering why government schools’ leadership too often doesn’t listen and respond appropriately, the state’s Republican majorities seem to have decided to adjust the public education social compact to provide for a multi-pronged methodology for fulfilling that public need to educate children.
One prong certainly continues to be through government-owned and -operated schools. Another prong has become having the community/state contract with parents currently needing children educated so those parents can use taxpayer funds to use their primacy for educating their children at schools of their choice. The primary definition in the dictionary of public is “of, concerning, or affecting the community or the people.” The people have the authority to decide for themselves what is meant by public education.
As long as all have the opportunity to be educated, the need is met, even though differently.
I argue that society has lazily intellectually conceived of public education only as schools which are government-owned and -operated.
Last question: When government schools too often seek to force parents to have their children be taught subject matter to which parents strongly object, should there any surprise parents and their elected representatives might take steps to once again more fully recognize primacy lies with parents? And that parents then think that’s a good thing? That seems, in a nutshell, to be just what Iowa has done. Over time, as teaching capacity increases through other than government schools, and as government don’t return to understanding who has educational primacy, parental choices to take the public education contract prong seem likely to increase.
That’s just fine for many of us.
John Harvey, Johnston
‘Convenience fees’ for card purchases deserve more scrutiny
Somebody recently told me that credit card “convenience fees” are just the new normal. I disagree.
When I go to a restaurant, retail store, or even pay a government bill online, I’m seeing more and more businesses tack on extra charges just for using a card. What started as an occasional fee has now become routine. Consumers are getting nickel-and-dimed everywhere they turn.
I understand businesses pay processing fees. That’s part of doing business in today’s economy. But if a business is charging 4% across the board, many of them are charging more than they actually pay. A convenience fee should not become a profit center.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act and the Durbin Amendment passed after the 2008 financial crisis, debit card interchange fees were specifically addressed and limited. Debit cards are not supposed to be treated the same as credit cards when it comes to surcharges and processing costs. Yet many consumers are still being charged extra for debit transactions every day.
What concerns me even more is when government entities do it. Cities, counties, and state agencies should be especially careful about charging fees on debit card payments. Taxpayers should not be paying inflated “convenience fees” simply for paying a utility bill, permit fee, property tax, or court payment electronically.
If businesses or government agencies truly want to recover their actual processing costs, then fine — be transparent and charge only the real amount. But consumers should not be treated like an extra revenue stream every time they pull out a card.
Just because something becomes common doesn’t make it right. We shouldn’t accept endless convenience fees as the “new normal.”
Jeffrey Pingel, Webster City
On nitrates, Republicans ignore Iowa’s leaky roof
My dad taught me that, if you have a leaking roof, the answer is not to buy more buckets to catch the leak, but to fix the roof. Well, Gov. Kim Reynolds and other Republicans think that the way to solve the nitrate problem in our water system is to buy more removal capacity (or “more buckets”).
The better answer is to reduce the amount of nitrogen farmers are putting on their fields upstream to try to increase corn yields (“fix the roof”). The Republicans are afraid to solve the nitrate problem by telling farmers they have to reduce the nitrogen fertilizer rates and change the way they are farming, as it might cost them a few votes.
We need a governor, senators and representatives who are willing to do the right thing when it comes to fixing what is broken in our state and not worrying about the number of votes they will gain or lose. We need to “fix the roof” and not just “buy more buckets.”
Duane Mortensen, Ankeny
Eisenhower understood the costs of war; Trump does not
I fear becoming curmudgeonly, complaining that things aren’t what they used to be. But sometimes they really aren’t. Consider what General Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and president from 1953 to 1961, said about war.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of children.”
Having experienced two wars, Eisenhower worked to foster peace globally. During his presidency, not one US soldier died in combat.
Our current president mocks prisoners of war, received a medical deferment for a “temporary” bone spur, and has taken our country into a war of choice for which he has provided no consistent, credible justification and to which there is no clear ending.
Already the war has caused global disruption, severe price hikes, 13 U.S. military deaths, many civilian casualties, and widespread damage. Instead of mourning those costs, Trump wants us to pay 47% more, not less, to the renamed Department of War. He says the federal government’s responsibility is “one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things … (referring to Medicaid, Medicare, daycare, and so on) … you have to let states take care of them.”
The general excelled at war and treasured peace; Trump understands neither.
Sue Ravenscroft, Ames
The billionaires draining our well-being
A study last year by the Rand Corp. showed that about 80 trillion dollars (that’s trillion with a “t”) has been transferred from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1% over the past 50 years. The report states, “The scale is staggering: in 2023 alone, the bottom 90% missed out on $3.9 trillion, equating to roughly $28,000 per worker.”
How was this done? According to the report, through a well-orchestrated political program of tax cuts favoring high earners, attacks on labor unions, globalization, and corporate practices favoring the few at the expense of the many.
And what have those fortunate few been doing with our money? They’ve been investing in political influence and media monopolies to further promote their interests, reduce their taxes and eliminate funding for our health care, education, safety and nutrition. All the while increasing the national debt to dangerous proportions.
What can we do? We need to recognize the fact that billionaires rely on a vast network of public goods – transportation, communication, legal and financial systems (and not a little luck) to generate their wealth. And we need to return to the kind of tax regimen that really did make America great. Until we put that carefully stolen wealth back into the public coffers and our own pockets, we won’t be able to do much else.
Thomas StClair, Decorah
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa has improved education under Republican leadership | Letters
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