Whose priorities for Iowa?

On Jan. 9, Priorities for Iowa, a Tremendous PAC claiming to be “an Iowa-based group” introduced a six-figure advert purchase in help of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ college voucher program. The group claims to have the pursuits of Iowa mother and father at coronary heart, however a quick have a look at their donor disclosures tells us in any other case.

In line with OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan nonprofit who tracks cash in U.S. politics, in 2020 the most important donation to Priorities for Iowa, $750,000, got here from billionaire hedge fund supervisor Kenneth C Griffin, founding father of Miami-based hedge fund Citadel LLC. Griffin is without doubt one of the high 50 wealthiest people on this planet at the moment. Equally, the most important donation of the 2022 election cycle got here from the managing companion at Oak Hill Capital, a New York non-public fairness agency.

I might assume that the majority Iowa mother and father don’t have entry to the form of non-public wealth that might enable them to affect the tutorial alternatives for folks in New York or Florida. In order an Iowa mother or father of public college kids, I’m involved concerning the outsized affect of out-of-state cash on Iowa politics. I’m additionally cautious of the curiosity that hedge funds and personal fairness companies have on needing the tax {dollars} that educate all of our youngsters. Particularly contemplating that way back to 2016, the Nationwide Training Coverage Middle warned that “the constitution business as an entire is starting to resemble a playground for personal fairness.” In the case of turning a revenue off of our kids’s schooling, whose packages would be the first reduce? Whose buildings will shut? Whose academics can be overworked and underpaid?

I hope Iowans can be sensible sufficient to suppose twice about whose pursuits are represented within the advertisements you’ll see selling the governors’ schooling invoice. If you wish to know who these voucher packages are made for and whose views on education are represented within the Iowa Legislature, look no additional than the New York and Florida hedge fund billionaires who plan on utilizing our tax {dollars} to remake the Iowa schooling system of their picture.

Nick Covington is an Iowa mother or father who taught highschool social research for 10 years. He’s additionally the co-founder of the Human Restoration Mission, an Iowa academic nonprofit selling systems-based pondering and grassroots organizing in schooling.

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