State Auditor Rob Sand says the Iowa Department of Education has denied him access to information about the state’s Education Savings Accounts. That’s the program championed by Governor Kim Reynolds to use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition.
Sand on Tuesday said the Reynolds administration’s refusal to provide the information means his office can’t determine if financial controls are in place to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.
“You want to look more closely at new programs to make sure that as they are getting set up, that everything is functioning as it’s supposed to. And so what I can say, is that never in the past have we been denied the capacity to do this,” Sand said.
Reynolds, who is a Republican, says Sand, a Democrat, is being political and using the issue as fodder for a future campaign for higher office. She says he needs to begin a separate audit, rather than trying to include this in a general audit of the state.
Sand says accountants in his office who have worked under Republicans and Democrats agree that they should be able to review the new ESA program that cost more than $100 million in the last fiscal year.
*Additionally, libraries and schools would no longer have protections from the state’s obscenity laws in a bill that advanced Monday in the Iowa House.
Iowa obscenity laws currently don’t apply to educational materials in schools, libraries or other educational programs. The code also says the laws can’t prohibit minors from attending art displays and exhibits, or limit the use of any materials in public libraries.
Chris Campbell from Ames supports the bill and says taxpayers’ money shouldn’t go toward library materials that could be deemed obscene.
Reverend Bridget Stevens, who is part of the United Church of Christ, was against the bill. She says children should be able to learn from accurate and holistic information.
“Mostly I oppose it because of the language in the repeal itself which says appropriate educational materials. Why are we removing appropriate educational materials? Why are we afraid of our kids learning?” Stevens said.
Protesters chanted outside the room at the end of the subcommittee before they were told to move to the rotunda where they continued an anti-Trump rally.
*With a continuing deep freeze in Siouxland, the Sioux City School District will not have classes for a second straight day on Wednesday.
Additionally, South Sioux City Schools had a two-hour late start on Tuesday, and also will on Wednesday and Thursday.
The National Weather Service had a Severe Cold Warning for Monday and Tuesday in parts of Siouxland, when wind chill temperatures were nearly 40 degrees below zero.
A streak of six days with morning temperatures below zero could run through Friday.
*Additionally, the period without a college student representative on the Iowa Board of Regents is ending.
University of Northern Iowa officials on Tuesday confirmed that Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed UNI student Lucy Gipple to serve on the board. She is an elementary education major from New Sharon, Iowa.
Gipple will begin her duties as one of the nine members on the Iowa Board of Regents in the next meeting on February 27 in Urbandale.
UNI President Mark Nook in a release said, “Lucy is a phenomenal student at UNI and I know she will represent herself very well in this capacity.”
*In other news, Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who spent decades in prison for his role in a shootout with FBI agents, has been released from prison.
Peltier was released from a federal prison in Florida on Tuesday morning.
He was convicted for the murder of two agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Peltier has always maintained his innocence.
Former President Joe Biden granted him clemency in the final days of his administration last month.
Some civil rights groups, including Amnesty International and NDN Collective, are celebrating Peltier's release. Some people see him as one of America’s longest serving political prisoners.
Others have publicly spoken out against the decision to release Peltier, including South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley.
Peltier, who is now 80, will serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement in North Dakota.
