Update From the House for District 80

by Rep. Holly Brink

Hello Friends,

The first funnel is over, so we have entered into a new season of the session. The only committees that met this week were Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Government Oversight. A large focus this week was given towards passing dozens of bipartisan bills in debate every day.

Those bills will be sent to the Senate, or if they came from the Senate, they will be sent to the Governor’s desk. Every day I come to work I am honored and humbled to be able to be your voice in the Iowa House, thank you.

Government Oversight

On Tuesday, we finally had our hearing with leaders from the Ames Community School District. The hearing lasted 105 minutes and included rigorous discussion about what happened in Ames and what is continuing to happen in Ames. To recap, the school district said it would be deriving its curriculum for the week based upon the “13 Guiding Principles” from a national group called “black lives matter at school week of action”. Ames posted the national curriculum on their website and teachers could use the posted link as a resource in the classroom. The resources contained many concerning materials for parents and teachers in the district.
Just a sample of concerns brought by community members were:

A 4th grade vocab sheet that included terms like”
“androsexual”, “bicurious”, “biphobia”, “cisnormativity”, and “hermaphrodite,”
In the 6th grade folder online there was a video that contained drug use and video of strippers dancing
An Ames child of a police officer was told that their parent’s profession was wrong
In the online materials, there was a voter guide that promoted liberal causes and claimed that Voter ID laws were “racist political maneuverings”
An opt out option was not readily offered to parents and students who opted out were bullied.

In the hearing Ames leaders offered concerning comments as well:

While teachers could opt out from the curriculum, all teachers are expected to complete critical consciousness training in the coming years if they haven’t already. Critical consciousness training is an explicitly Marxist ideology
Ames Superintendent Jenny Risner stood by Ames school’s false claim that only 3 people spoke against the week of action at the Ames School Board meeting on January 25th. That meeting is publicly available and I encourage you to listen for yourself. 9 people spoke against the material during the school board meeting.
Superintendent Risner denied knowing about the distribution and use of a 216-page activist training guide to all teachers in Meeker Elementary and a PDF version to all staff in a newsletter. The cover states “defund the police” and is intendent to be used as a daily guide on how to be an activist teacher. I do not know what is more concerning, if Superintendent Risner lied about her knowledge of the book, or if she really is not aware of what is being forced on teachers in her district.

What are the next steps?

The House Government Oversight committee has teeth. The committee is funnel-proof, meaning that we can introduce legislation at any point in the session unlike most other committees. So the committee will take our time to evaluate what was said Tuesday, as well as the comments we have received from the community to determine the best path forward.

Successful Legislation

On Monday I lead the passage of two different bills by the full Iowa House. The first was HF 318 which is the preschool bill that I have talked about in this newsletter before. Simply, this bill allows more age groups to attend preschool instead of forcing children to go straight to kindergarten because they turned 5-years old by March 15th. This bill changes it to September 15th.

We talk about parental choice in education all the time, and each parent knows what level of school their child is ready for. I have held 21 subcommittees regarding this bill over the last couple of years, and I am so proud to have finally gotten the bill to the floor and passed with every Republican and Democrat present voting for the change.

The other bill was also non-controversial, SF 261. The bill allows the Iowa college student aid commission to organize a nonprofit corporation. Hopefully this can be a productive step towards college affordability and was passed by the Senate and the House unanimously. It now heads to the Governor’s desk for her signature.

Women’s Panel

I was honored to join Senator Ernst, Senator Koelker, and Representative Jones for a panel celebrating women in politics hosted by Iowa State University and moderated by ISU Student Body President Morgan Fritz. It was great to share stories and encourage others. I think we are getting closer to the day when great women are simply called “leaders” instead of “women leaders”.

Thank you for your encouragement and prayers. There is never an off week and it is your support that keeps me excited every day to come to work.

I always enjoy hearing from you! My contact information is below.

Holly Brink
State Representative, Iowa District 80
(641)295-7111
Holly.brink@legis.iowa.gov