Fred Maharry.

I started my career in rural Iowa in 1974 as an English, speech and reading teacher. Our students were top performers and the state’s education system was the gold standard. Educators and public schools in general were revered and respected by their communities.

We didn’t have a lot of money — but we were still able to adequately fund our classrooms and provide our students with an enriched education that prepared them for success after graduation.

But, unfortunately, times change.

Iowa has stripped its public schools of funding for decades, while demanding they do more. Their budgets have been cut to the bone. There’s no fat left. For years, lawmakers have said the state was strapped for cash and, therefore, couldn’t give its schools more than a meager 2% yearly increase that failed to keep up with inflation. Public schools, which serve more than 90% of our students, would just have to do more with less.

Cue 2023, when legislators and Gov. Kim Reynolds were somehow able to scrape up the money to create a school voucher program that has cost taxpayers more than $700 million in the first three years. Now, while the state faces its largest budget deficit in years, it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to send Iowa’s students to private schools. All the while, public schools are looking at a best-case scenario of a 2% increase and gaping funding shortfalls from the loss of hundreds of students to private schools.

At least back when I first became a teacher, lawmakers would say, “We aren’t going to give you money, but we support you.” That support is long gone. Elected officials, instead, tell schools to just deal with it. Reynolds, in her Condition of the State last month, said in Iowa, “we fund students, not systems. And the results speak for themselves.”

Funny thing, though, we don’t have the actual results, because private schools don’t have to tell the public how they spend taxpayer dollars or share how students are performing. Even the state auditor isn’t allowed to track the money to make sure it’s spent appropriately.

Somewhere along the line, Iowa politicians started caring more about billionaires and big corporations than the people they were elected to represent. They brought copy-and-paste legislation from other states that was backed by out-of-state companies who now benefit from our taxpayer dollars. Dollars that could provide our public schools a much-needed lifeline.

These policies don’t align with Iowans’ values. They are deeply unpopular. Frustration is aimed at teachers and administrators. It’s tough and makes educators, who are doing the best they can, question if this is what they signed up for. No wonder Iowa faces a severe teacher shortage.

As a former superintendent, I know what it’s like to go through cuts. You try to keep them away from students as much as possible. We tried to maintain small class sizes in our elementary schools but teaching positions had to be cut and classes grew larger across every grade level.

We as Iowans have to stand up for ourselves and our state, because the calvary isn’t coming to save us. School boards across the state are signing onto Public School Strong resolutions to fully fund public schools at 5% and phase out the voucher program. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement recently started the push, with nine districts already signing on.

Iowa politicians are putting the future of our youth at risk through the continued degradation of our public schools. We are already paying a price for their ineptitude, but we are going to pay an even bigger price in the future. It’s time to stand up and demand change. Our kids are counting on us.

Fred Maharry grew up in Creston and served in Iowa school districts for 36 years, including 17 as a superintendent. He is the father of Tama-Grundy Publishing’s managing editor Robert Maharry. This column was first published by Iowa Capital Dispatch. It is republished here under a Creative Commons License.