The President Trump executive order restricting DEI programs is ending the participation of the Sioux City School District in a special graduation extra event that has honored African American students for the last 14 years.
The OURS Parent Group, the NAACP city chapter and the district have held a ceremony to celebrate black students who graduated from East, West, and North high schools.
But Jim Tillman told Siouxland Public Media News on Monday that the district will no longer provide a venue, nor is it expected that some school officials will attend. Tillman cited the reason as the district complying with the Trump order regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Additionally, at the state level, a law has moved all three state universities to end DEI programs, causing about 15 jobs to be severed.
“It’s the new normal. It is the new Iowa we live in. Oh, It is insane and they know it is. They know it is B.S.,” he said.
Tillman the bad news from the district came from Dora Jung, who is the director of student services and Title IX director at the Sioux City School District.
“Dr. Jung, she felt horrible, they really do, but they have no choice in the matter,” he said.
Sioux City School District Spokeswoman Leslie Heying in a statement said, “We celebrate the diversity of our district and our students, while also abiding by the new federal DEI legislation.”
The event will still be held at a site to be determined in mid-May, with the OURS group and NAACP participation.
*Additionally, world-famous conservationist Jane Goodall spoke to a big crowd of people in Sioux City on Sunday, two months after she was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The Jane Goodall Institute lost funding due to recent cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Goodall told reporters before her speech that even though times are tough, “they’ll make it.”
In addition to talking about the value of environmental and humanitarian issues, Goodall also honored the three survivors of a school bus crash in Tanzania.
Almost eight years ago, missionaries from Sioux City saved the students. They were then flown to Sioux City for medical treatment.
Wilson Tarimo is now 20 years old and returned to Sioux City in 2022 to attend college.
“We have made many people understand how to have humanity, to have love and respect, and to live life worth living,” Tarimo said.
Tarimo and the two other Tanzanian students plan to be ambassadors for Goodall’s “Roots and Shoots” program, which focuses on environmental, conservation, and humanitarian issues.
*Nebraska state senators might get a pay raise, under a measure that was debated in the Legislature on Friday and again Monday.
The measure proposed by state Senator Ben Hansen would use the state’s constitutional amendment process, to establish an independent commission to recommend changes in state senators’ pay.
If approved by the Legislature, the measure would go before voters in NOvember 2026.
The pay is currently set in the state constitution at $12,000 per year, an amount that hasn’t increased in nearly 40 years. Hansen said that’s low compared to other states, and limits the number of Nebraskans who are willing to serve as lawmakers.
The national average for state legislators was just over $39,000 in 2021.
*Additionally, the state of Nebraska could return to the winner-take-all system of allocating its Electoral College votes, under a proposal advanced to the full Legislature for debate.
A committee last week advanced a proposal to return Nebraska to the winner-take-all system of allocating its Electoral College votes for president.
Currently, Nebraska is one of only two states, along with Maine, that doesn’t give all its Electoral votes to the statewide winner.
Instead, the state gives two of its five votes to whoever gets the most votes statewide; the other three are given to whoever wins each of the three congressional districts. A Democratic presidential candidate has not won the statewide vote since 1964, but has picked up one vote in the Omaha-area second district in three of the last five elections.
The Republican Party and many of its officeholders have supported a return to winner-take all. Democrats have opposed the change, arguing the current system better reflects voters’ will.
