A Rat’s Smell

A Better Path to Learning has written about the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom before. The Center was mandated by the Iowa Legislature a few years ago, but now it’s back in the news based on low enrollment during its first year of existence.

Last week, the Des Moines Register reported that Governor Kim Reynolds signed an appropriations bill into law that contained a provision that all University of Iowa students must take an introductory American history course and an American government course, beginning in the 2028-29 school year.

ABPTL isn’t against mandated coursework in the areas of American history and government, but how Iowa is going about implementing this mandate is troubling. Instead of the university’s existing departments of history and political science planning and teaching these courses, the Iowa Legislature, also in the signed appropriations bill, assigned the teaching tasks to the Center for Intellectual Freedom, a move to make sure the Center has increased enrollment moving forward.

According to the Register,

“The center, established by Iowa lawmakers in 2025, is part of a Republican push to expand civics education at the state’s public universities. GOP lawmakers contend the center will help balance out what they view as overwhelmingly liberal viewpoints at institutions of higher education.”

“Representative Taylor Collins, Republican from Mediapolis, Iowa, who chairs the Iowa House Higher Education Committee and pushed for the center’s establishment, said he looks forward to working with the Board of Regents to implement the changes.”

“’Our message is simple – the status quo in higher education is over. Iowa will how have a core curriculum that brings the focus back to a true liberal arts education,’ Collins said in a statement. ‘Instead of absurd courses in magic or witchcraft, Iowa students will now get back to the basics – understanding the core pillars of our great nation.’”

“Critics argue the center represents an attempt to spread conservative viewpoints for college credit.”

“Senator Janet Petersen, Democrat from Des Moines, said the new requirement will force students and families to pay for courses in which they have no interest.”

“’We saw that no students really wanted to participate in that program, but this legislation will require families who are paying for college education for their kids, which is not cheap, that they would be forced to take these freedom classes, six hours at the University of Iowa,’ Petersen said during final debate on the bill May 3. ‘I hate to see that.’”

“The center is the first civics-focused program in Iowa mandated by legislative action. It is overseen by the Board of Regents, which is tasked with overseeing the center’s mission, staffing and budget.”

“Classes began in March after being delayed, but saw low enrollment with only 21 of 64 available seats filled….”

So it seems now that the Iowa Legislature has stepped in to insure the Center is properly enrolled.

Does anyone smell a rat here?

Don’t misunderstand. Every graduate from the University of Iowa, or any other institution of higher education for that matter, can benefit from taking a course in American history and civics. That’s not the issue.

What smells bad in this case is the Iowa Legislature mandating enrollment to a Center that was severely lacking student interest during its first year, while the university’s departments of history and political science, the places these courses have been taught for nearly two centuries, sit idly by while being accused of being left-leaning. What’s next? A Center for Proper English because members of the Iowa Legislature don’t agree with how professors at the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop are teaching noun-verb relationships?

The conservative Iowa legislators are behaving no differently than a group of leftist activists as they attempt to create conditions favorable to their point of view. They should be ashamed.

Finally, when I worked in the Texas public schools, we knew there was only one less qualified institution to make instructional decisions for kids than our K-12 school district, and that institution was the Texas Legislature. Do we really think members of the Iowa Legislature are that much smarter at deciding the who and how questions related to curriculum and instruction than Texas?

No, this Center needs to be closed, the courses need to be managed by existing university departments, and the Republican-dominated Iowa Legislature needs to stay in their lane – establishing policy for the state’s Board of Regents to enact, along with university leadership.

Til tomorrow. SVB