Iowa
‘¿Habla español?’ Iowa schools look overseas to find Spanish teachers
See how Iowa schools are bring language teachers from Spain
see how Iowa schools are filling world language teacher positions and enriching classrooms through an exchange program with Spain.
The sounds of Dallas Center-Grimes High School Spanish students singing “¿Por Que Te Vas?” by Jeanette with varying levels of gusto and prodding by teacher Antton Zuazu Hernández may seem like an unusual way to learn.
But the sing-along is how Zuazu Hernández, a native of Spain, helps engage his students and share his culture as part of a teacher-exchange program.
“I feel I’m a messenger in a way, and this is part of the program,” he said. “We’re expected to both bring our culture here and bring your culture back to Spain.”
Zuazu Hernández — who taught English in Spain — is among 26 bilingual teachers in Iowa as part of an exchange program between the Iowa Department of Education and Spain’s Ministry of Education and Culture.
“(The program) was created to address the shortage of qualified Spanish teachers in the state and helps expose students to different world cultures,” said Heather Doe, the department’s spokesperson. “… The Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain program has been very successful in helping schools, especially in rural communities, hire highly qualified Spanish teachers.”
Iowa has nearly 1,200 world language teachers in kindergarten through college, according to the Iowa World Language Association website.
Some foreign language teachers in Iowa moved to the U.S. and later obtained teaching credentials. Others were recruited to work in Iowa schools.
Iowa schools, including Waukee Community School District, even offer financial incentives as a recruitment tool for hard to fill positions.
“Many of them, like me, will arrive with teaching experience from our home countries, but in the process of validating the credentials in the U.S. we find obstacles,” said Elizabeth Bulthuis, a Waukee High School world languages teacher who immigrated from Ecuador in 2003, “and the validating of credentials also can be lengthy and costly, because of all the educational systems and how they are structured differently.”
Exchange program is beneficial to schools, superintendent
The Spain exchange program — which brings hundreds of teachers to schools across the U.S. — comes with several requirements.
The Spanish teachers must be certified in the language with at least two years of experience, Doe said. Additionally, candidates go through a vetting process at the federal, state and local levels. Teachers also attend a three-day state orientation.
Schools and districts participating in the program pay an $895 fee to offset licensing and orientation costs, Doe said.
The program is a blessing for rural areas struggling to fill positions teaching foreign language, special education, math and science.
“It’s very difficult to even get an applicant,” said Deron Stender, the superintendent at the rural Creston Community School District, “… When I say it’s difficult to even find (the candidates) they don’t exist. And if they do, they’re probably going to be in a larger metro, urban, suburban areas where there’s just more opportunities.”
St. Anthony’s conducts bilingual class for its students
St. Anthony’s Catholic school brings Spanish speaking teachers to the U.S. to teach students the language.
Zuazu Hernández taught Spanish and drove a bus at Creston during the 2024-25 school year. But falling enrollment and budget cuts resulted in his position being eliminated.
A program drawback is teachers only have three-year visas, he said.
“When you have a very good individual that comes to your district from a foreign country after the third year, you still have that need again,” Stender said. “So, we just open it back up to the same program, but you’re doing another refresh of the process, and while that’s a challenge, it’s still better than not having a teacher in the classroom.”
Not every world language teacher comes from Spain
Another issue schools have faced is filling teaching positions for immersion programs.
In the early 2000s, St. Anthony’s started a Spanish-immersion program after several families with children of Honduras and Guatemala descent wanted their kids to have a Catholic school education and maintain their connection to the Spanish language.
“A lot of teachers go to school to teach Spanish, but they go to school to teach it as a standalone Spanish class,” principal Jennifer Raes said. “… We were really searching for teachers that could come here and teach in any subject, just a regular teacher, but also has the skills of teaching in Spanish and English.”
Marisol Guerra, a Honduras native, came to the U.S. in 2010 to help start St. Anthony’s program. Guerra manage to come to the U.S. as part of that year’s Spain exchange program cohort.
More than a decade later, the school offers classes in English and an immersive track where 85% of the students’ day is spent learning in Spanish. While families were hesitant in the beginning to take part in the immersion program, there is now a waitlist of almost a dozen families.
“There was uncertainty, (but) they wanted their children to learn a second language,” Guerra said, “and they wanted without knowing, I think, they also were exposing them to other cultures and opening their minds to other things.”
The over the years, St. Anthony’s has employed teachers who moved to America from Spain, Mexico and other Latin American countries.
The over representation of teachers from Spain likely is due to other countries not offering similar exchange programs, said Bulthuis, a member of the Iowa World Language Association.
It took several years for the veteran teacher — who came to Iowa in 2005 — to become credentialed to teach in the U.S. because she was not part of an exchange program.
“I think that world language teachers can be difficult to recruit because the pool of candidates is relatively small, so teachers need a strong language proficiency, cultural knowledge and all the teaching certifications,” said Bulthuis, who left Ecuador in 2003 because of the country’s financial crisis, “(but) many people who speak another language also have opportunity in other careers.”
Bulthuis does not recommend loosening the criteria to teach in Iowa but suggests improving or streamlining the process for an international teacher to obtain a state teaching license.
“… Not every Spanish speaking country is going to have (an exchange) program like that in place to help their community,” Bulthuis said,
Cultural exchange
Educators say employing international teachers goes beyond language skills.
“International educators can bring tremendous cultural and linguistic expertise to the classroom, which is an incredible skill and very valuable for students,” Bulthuis said.
That cultural exchange can carry over into a school’s lesson plans.
Zuazu Hernández often lets his American students’ interests drive what he teaches them about Spanish culture. These questions have ranged from wanting more insight into bullfighting, the Spanish school system, stereotypes and politics.
“Sometimes, they are more interested in me as a person, or the things I can tell them about Spain than the actual Spanish language,” he said, “but they have that curiosity that I think all teachers, we have to take advantage of.”
While reading “¡Viva el toro!” by Lisa Ray Turner and Blaine Ray, a novel about bullfighting, Zuazu Hernández talked to students about his family’s love of the cultural spectacle and how it is losing popularity in Spain because of how the bulls are treated.
Zuazu Hernández is open about his perspective on the practice to his students.
“To me, bullfighting is not worth sustaining just because it’s a tradition — traditions are not always good or acceptable — but rather because it’s an art, and it expands the depth of human understanding of the most intense truths in life, with death as the scariest of all,” he told the Des Moines Register in an email.
His students appreciate his candidness and the chance to learn from teachers with different lived experiences.
“I like having different teachers because they have different experiences, and I think it adds to the overall class,” said Grace Heston, an 11th grader Dallas Center-Grimes High School. “When you’re learning about Spanish, you’re not just learning about a language, you’re learning about the culture associated with it.”
Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com.
Tate Schendel on Waukee Northwest boys soccer’s win over Urbandale
Hear from Waukee Northwest goalkeeper Tate Schendel after the Wolves beat Urbandale in the Class 4A boys soccer state semifinals.
It took two overtimes and six penalty kicks to decide a winner in Waukee Northwest’s Iowa high school boys soccer state quarterfinal matchup against Johnston on Monday.
And it looked like the semifinal would go the same way, that is, until Eman Alicic came up big on a penalty kick in the final minutes of the No. 2 Wolves’ state semifinal game against No. 3 Urbandale on Wednesday, June 3.
“It was too long of a game last time,” joked Northwest goaltender Tate Schendel postgame. “From now on, we’re just going to try to close things out, get it done and keep moving on.”
It took more than 10 minutes for either team to record a shot, and even longer for an attempt to go on goal.
The Wolves hammered a dozen shots in the direction of Urbandale’s goal in the opening 40 minutes, but only a couple came close to going in – including a shot from Alicic that bounced out after hitting the corner of the crossbar.
The J-Hawks had fewer chances at the net, but more attempts hit the target. Of Urbandale’s seven first-half chances, four were on goal – and Schendel stopped all of them.
With one defense keeping shots on goal away from their keeper and the other team’s goalie stepping up to make risky saves, Northwest and Urbandale headed to the locker room tied, 0-0, at halftime.
“He’s been with us now for three years as a starter, and each year he’s come up big and done great things,” Waukee Northwest head coach Carlos Acebey said about Schendel. “I don’t think he gets a lot of credit for how well he plays between the goalposts, and he’s a solid player for us.”
The Wolves took control in the second half, firing off 12 more shots – including seven on goal – to Urbandale’s three shots, only one of which made its way into Schendel’s hands. But despite Northwest’s ability to keep much of the pressure on the J-Hawks’ end of the field, the game remained scoreless deep into the second half.
With just under four minutes remaining in regulation, Eddie Mihura won the ball around midfield, and then Alicic sent a cross-field pass that was misplayed by one of Urbandale’s players and made its way to Sully Ervin.
He took the ball downfield on a breakaway, but didn’t get a chance at the net, as a J-Hawks player took him down in the box, resulting in a penalty kick.
“He’s just a little buzz saw,” Acebey said about Ervin. “He creates a lot of problems just because he’s annoying, but he’s a great annoying for us. I love it.”
Alicic – the sophomore star and leading goal scorer on Northwest’s roster – lined up for the penalty kick and nailed it, sending the ball left as Urbandale’s goalie dove to the right.
“He’s really wiser than people give him credit for,” Acebey said. “He’s a sophomore, but he’s very intelligent. His soccer IQ is off the charts. He’s a player that gives us a lot of confidence…and the last three teams that we played have tried to double team, triple team him, and he still is going to get the ball.”
The J-Hawks attempted to get another chance at a goal in the final minutes of the game, but Northwest had an answer for everything Urbandale tried. The final horn bellowed, and the Wolves celebrated their first trip to the championship game since the program’s inaugural season in 2022.
Northwest will face off against No. 1 Ankeny Centennial – still undefeated – at 2:30 p.m. on June 5 at Mediacom Stadium.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
Iowa
Zach Lahn projected to win Iowa GOP governor primary, upsetting Trump’s pick in a state Democrats hope to flip
Zach Lahn will win the Republican primary for Iowa governor, CBS News projects, overcoming a Trump-backed congressman and setting up a November contest against Democrat Rob Sand that could be one of this year’s most competitive gubernatorial races.
Lahn — a farmer and businessman who has touted his ties to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement — prevailed over a crowded GOP field on Tuesday. Sand, who serves as state auditor, ran for the Democratic nomination unopposed.
His victory bucks the recent winning streak of Trump-backed candidates and marks an upset over Rep. Randy Feenstra, who didn’t attend any primary debates and was viewed by many observers as a frontrunner. President Trump endorsed Feenstra last week, calling him “MAGA all the way,” and several top Iowa GOP figures backed him.
Feenstra conceded late Tuesday night, saying in a speech surrounded by his family that the outcome “wasn’t what I wanted.”
Describing himself as a sixth-generation Iowan, Lahn owns a family farm and runs the agriculture, real estate and technology investment firm Homeplace Ventures. He previously worked for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. He’s running on a populist-inflected platform that he branded “Iowa First” and has said he wants to boost local ownership of farmland, stem the flow of younger Iowans out of the state and address Iowa’s high cancer rate.
“I fear every day we are losing the Iowa we love,” Lahn said in his victory speech Tuesday, castigating out-of-state investors that he says “treat Iowa land like it’s a commodity instead of our inheritance.”
Lahn was endorsed last year by MAHA Action, a group founded by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and he picked up support from the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action last week. He was also endorsed by former Rep. Steve King, who was known for incendiary comments about race before Feenstra ousted him in a 2020 primary.
Three other candidates also ran: former Iowa Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state Rep. Brad Sherman.
Lahn will now face Sand, a two-term state auditor who defeated a GOP incumbent in 2018 after working in the state attorney general’s office.
Sand has focused his campaign on government accountability and faulted Republicans for the state’s economic issues, while pitching universal pre-K and criticizing a school voucher program introduced by GOP officials. He has also sought to cultivate a moderate image on social issues, as Republicans try to cast him as a liberal in centrist’s clothing.
In a campaign video late Tuesday, Sand said Republican voters are “welcome in this campaign,” adding that the state’s political system is “broken” and “all you would get with Zach Lahn it is more of the same.”
Once considered a swing state, Iowa has trended sharply red in recent years as Democrats increasingly struggle on rural Midwestern terrain. Mr. Trump won the state three times in a row, including by a 13-point margin in 2024, and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds won reelection by 18 points four years ago. Iowa hasn’t elected a Democratic governor in two decades, and Sand is the only statewide elected Democrat, after he won reelection by fewer than 3,000 votes in 2022.
But Democrats are hopeful that a challenging political environment for Republicans, both nationally and in Iowa, could make them more competitive in the midwestern state. The Cook Political Report has rated the Iowa gubernatorial race a tossup, one of five states with that distinction this year, and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics says the race leans red.
Reynolds — who has led the state since 2017 — has one of the lowest approval ratings of any governor nationwide. Iowa farmers also struggled last year after the trade war with China caused Beijing to cut American soybean imports, pushing down prices of one of Iowa’s most widely grown crops, and the war with Iran has caused a run-up in fuel and fertilizer prices.
Reynolds declined to run for reelection this year, setting up Iowa’s first gubernatorial election without an incumbent in the race since 2006.
Lahn lent his campaign $2 million last year, but is heading into the general election at a fundraising disadvantage. His campaign had just over $700,000 on hand as of mid-May, compared to nearly $18.3 million for the Sand campaign. Sand’s wife runs a sizable food and health products company founded by her family called the Lauridsen Group, and the Democrat’s campaign coffers have been bolstered by millions in contributions from his in-laws.
Sand raised about $9.7 million between the start of the year and mid-May, just over $3 million of which came from members of his wife’s family. Lahn raised just under $1 million.
Beyond the governor’s race, Iowa also has an open Senate contest after Ernst declined to seek reelection, drawing interest from Democrats, though Republicans likely have a sizable edge. Democrats are also heavily targeting two of Iowa’s four House seats, including the 1st District, where incumbent GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks won by fewer than 1,000 votes in 2024.
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