(Radio Iowa) – A majority of the Republicans on the Iowa House Education Committee have voted to get rid of the tenure system at Iowa’s three public universities. Representative Skyler Wheeler, a Republican from Orange City, says tenure protects bad professors.

“Tenure was originally designed to protect diversity of thought on college campuses, however as we have seen clearly in our Regents universities, there is no longer diversity of thought,” Wheeler says. “According to a study of the top 40 colleges, this is about four years ago, on average for every one Republican college professor, there are 12 Democrats.”

Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, says Iowa would become the only state in the country to ban tenure if the bill becomes law. “I’ve always believed Iowa is a quality place and we stand alone, but I don’t believe this would create a good impression of our state and our educational system because it would suffer greatly if we were to abandon or eliminate tenure.”

The move to ban tenure is now eligible for debate in the full House.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that has cleared an Iowa Senate subcommittee would require transgender students in Iowa schools to use bathrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificate. Republican Senator Jim Carlin of Sioux City is the bill’s sponsor. “The concern is not so much with transgender individuals,” Carlin said, “…but that sexual predators would exploit such laws for posing as transgender in order to gain access to women and girls.”

A lobbyist representing Iowa school boards says the policy would put schools in the impossible position of violating Iowa’s Civil Rights Act and federal guidelines — and set the state up for lengthy litigation. Keenan Crow is a lobbyist for One Iowa, which represents L-G-B-T-Q Iowans.  “Transgender students in Iowa have been abel to use restrooms that match their gender identity since 2017 and over that 14 year period we haven’t seen any uptick in school restroom safety incidents,” Crow says.

North Carolina lawmakers passed what is often referred to as a “bathroom bill” in 2016, but repealed it a year later after some corporations cancelled business deals in North Carolina and the N-C-A-A and N-B-A moved games to other states.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has approved a series of bills that provide state grants and tax grants in hopes of boosting access to child care. One bill would set up a tax credit for businesses that provide child care benefits for employees. Representative Jane Bloomingdale of Northwood says it address two of the state’s major problems — a shortage of workers and a lack of child care options for parents who want to work.

“By providing child care, it helps the employer retain and recruit workers,” she says, “and it helps the employees go back to work when they know they have affordable and reliable child care.”

Officials say 81 Iowa child care centers have closed during the pandemic and another bill would let in-home child care providers that are registered with the state care for one more school-aged child. Another bill that passed the House would significantly raise the income threshold for the state’s child care assistance program. About 25-thousand Iowa children who live in low-income households with parents who work or go to school are covered by the program. Representative Lindsay James of Dubuque says some working parents turn down extra hours or raises because they’ll no longer quality and cannot afford to pay for child care on their own.

“I heard especially from single moms that they were falling off the cliff when it came to their child care benefits that our state offers because they’re getting a higher income in their jobs,” James says.

Each of the child care related bills passed the House with bipartisan support.