What does it say when Reynolds' appointees dare vote no on her priorities?

It says there's hope. Look what the Iowa Board of Regents did.

Photo by Kalea on Unsplash

In the scheme of things, this has been a good week for democracy in Iowa. People who set education policies refused to follow the governor’s lead in compromising academic freedom or revoking some civil rights. And public opposition gets much of the credit for that.

It happened at both the higher education and public-school levels. In the first, the Iowa Board of Regents refused to succumb to pressure to ban teachings on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in state-funded institutions: the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University. That’s though a state law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds prevents the use of those concepts in Regents-governed institutions as well as state, city and county government entities.

On Tuesday, the Regents voted against the policy on which they held a first reading in June. It would have exempted students from taking college courses with “substantial content that conveys DEI or CRT” to satisfy curriculum requirements. Instead, the policy it approved deletes references to DEI and CRT, and allows the teaching of “controversial subjects,” relevant to course material to foster critical thinking from more than one perspective.

Only one Iowa Regent, Nancy Dunkel, voted no on the revamped policy on the grounds that it still restricted the academic freedom “crucial for encouraging critical thinking and debate and supporting a healthy democracy.” Any issue can be controversial,Dunkel pointed out, but there aren’t always two equal sides to be taught, such as on Evolution.

The vote is significant because all of the Regents were appointed by Republican governers, many by Gov. Kim Reynolds. It’s a hopeful indication of their independence from whatever agenda she’s pushing. That should, of course, go without saying, but Reynolds has helped primary state legislators up for re-election out of office when they wouldn’t support her school voucher policy. And Donald Trump as president has retaliated with vengeanceagainst his appointees who didn’t submit to his agenda. This is the era we live in.

The Regents yes voters included Robert Cramer, who has served on the board of the anti-gay-rights Iowa Family Leader, and David Barker, described by The Des Moines Register as a “prominent Republican Party donor” who has been tapped by Trump to serve as a federal assistant secretary of postsecondary education. The original Regents proposed policy forbade teaching “transgender ideology” in higher education.

That both Reynolds and Trump, for political capital, have expended such energy attacking education on historical racism and systemic bias will be remembered as blockades on the march to equality. Civil rights for transgender Iowans was removed from the Iowa Civil Rights Act effective last month. And Trump has threatened to cut federal funds to public schools with policies that include transgender students.

But we’re seeing pushback on that front too in Iowa. The Urbandale School District this week decided not to remove gender identity protection from its policies despite that new Iowa law. At least three other Des Moines metro school districts - Johnston, West Des Moines and Ankeny - have protected theirs as well, despite recommendations to the contrary from the Iowa Association of School Boards and legal counsel. The Iowa City and Linn-Marr school districts also have gender-identity protections in place and the Des Moines school district has not to date revisited its transgender protections.

A vocal critic of the earlier proposal, Iowa Democratic state Sen. Herman Quirmbach, wrote to the Regents in June after the first reading. He said the policy would violate Chapter 261H of the Iowa code, which legally “guarantees academic freedom at Iowa public universities and community colleges.” Quirmbach’s letter also pointed out the policy’s obvious bias: Though some Regents said indoctrination could come from the left and the right, the policy addressed only DEI and CRT, which he wrote were “both normally associated with the left.”

“This asymmetry casts doubt on the evenhandedness of your approach and raises suspicions…” Quirmbach wrote, namely whether the board was “trying to push an agenda themselves.”

He calls the revised proposal “a tremendous improvement” along the lines he had recommended.

But another point in his June letter is worth hearing, especially by state legislators. Quirmach has a Ph.D in economics and 40 years of university experience teaching it. Still, as he wrote, he wouldn’t presume to make judgments on how history, sociology, or anthropology should be taught. “I would further suggest, respectfully,” he wrote, “that the Board does not have the breadth of academic background to be able to decide what topics are essential to mastering a discipline and would thus merit an exception in a required course.”

Nor, I suspect, do the state lawmakers who approved the law Reynolds signed.

Quirmbach also pointed out to me that the original Regents policy would have banned any “policy, program, training, practice, activity, or procedure referencing unconscious or implicit bias… or anti-racism.”

But racial bias is prohibited under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. So racism is illegal but teaching about that would also have brought charges.

Desperate times demand deliberative solutions. In this unprecedented era, freedoms, rights and institutions we’ve long counted on to uphold democracy are being tossed out with the stroke of a pen. The good news is that Americans of all persuasions are standing up against untenable dictates, and even prevailing.

So, though it may at times feel frustrating to make calls and write letters that don’t seem to get read or heeded, there are many ways to get heard. Never underestimate the power of your voice.

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