Randy Evans's blog

If an opinionated old guy from southern Iowa delivered the recent commencement address at the United States Military Academy, my message would have contrasted with the one given by another opinionated old guy, one from Queens, N.Y., by way of the White House.

When I was a newspaper editor, I sometimes told the staff they needed to run a belt sander across an article to remove rough spots before publication. So it was with Donald Trump’s speech to 1,000 new Army second lieutenants at West Point a week ago. His staff needed to take the Oval Office belt sander to his message.

The West Point graduates are embarking on military careers that will disrupt their family life and may end in death or crippling injury. The president was on the mark when he thanked them for their willingness to sacrifice to protect the safety and security of our nation.

But these young men and women deserved more facts and serious reflection, fewer half-truths, less fiction, and no campaign rhetoric. These new officers and their families did not gather on the highlands above the Hudson River to hear about trophy wives and “the late great Alphonse Capone.” (Inexplicably, our president talked about both.)

You may be experiencing whiplash this spring just trying to track the Iowa Legislature’s zig-zag movements. It comes from what some might charitably call a lack of consistency on a key theme.

A set of bills from the Republican majority at the Capitol illustrates this inconsistency.

First, there’s the Legislature’s initiative banning the state universities and community colleges from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in their admissions programs, hiring practices and academic programs. The politicians say these promote quotas, reverse discrimination and politically divisive ideologies.

As we approach the second anniversary of a tragedy that shocked the people of Davenport and brought national attention to the issue of building safety, government secrecy continues to cloud public understanding of just what happened and who to hold accountable.

The tragedy occurred a few minutes before 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 28, 2023, when the back wall of a Davenport apartment building gave way, bringing down much of the six-story residence that occupied a quarter block across the street from City Hall.

Three people died in the collapse. Rescuers amputated the leg of a fourth victim to free her from the rubble.

Before the dust from bricks and other building materials settled, the community asked how and why the collapse occurred, who was responsible, and how the city could avoid similar tragedies in the future.

The debris is gone now, and the dead are buried. But questions still linger — largely because local officials continue to use their power and pay attorneys to keep many pertinent documents secreted from journalists and concerned residents.

Growing up in the 1950s, Evans family vacations seem typical by rural Midwest standards: car trips to the Ozarks, the Black Hills, Nauvoo and New Salem in Illinois, or St. Louis for a Cardinals baseball game.

But one memorable summer trip, around 1960, occurred when we motored north through Minnesota to Canada, the only foreign country my parents ever visited and a place more exotic than the Wisconsin Dells.

Exotic? Absolutely. This trip *required* us to stop at the border and clear a Canadian customs check.

Growing up in the 1950s, Evans family vacations seem typical by rural Midwest standards: car trips to the Ozarks, the Black Hills, Nauvoo and New Salem in Illinois, or St. Louis for a Cardinals baseball game.

But one memorable summer trip, around 1960, occurred when we motored north through Minnesota to Canada, the only foreign country my parents ever visited and a place more exotic than the Wisconsin Dells.

Exotic? Absolutely. This trip *required* us to stop at the border and clear a Canadian customs check.

As the president, governors and legislators elevate the stress and anxiety in higher education in the United States by seeking to change how colleges and universities operate and what they teach, the contrast between how an Ivy League school and an Iowa university responded shows the courage gap among college leaders.

Columbia University, the 270-year-old private, non-profit institution in New York City, garnered intense governmental attention and public criticism last week.

The Trump administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants for medical and scientific research because of what the president thought was the school’s inadequate response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus growing out of Israel’s war in Gaza. The president demanded the school make a series of substantive changes as preconditions for the feds’ restoration of the grants — including banning protesters from wearing masks, thereby making it easier to identify them.

Robert Reich, a University of California professor of public policy and former member of the Clinton cabinet, wrote last week about the Trump administration’s actions: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is just about Trump wanting to protect Jewish students from expressions of antisemitism. It’s about the Trump regime wanting to impose all sorts of values on American higher education. It’s all about intimidation.”

While the Ivy League school withered in the spotlight and gave in to the pressure, Drake University, the largest private school in Iowa, stood firm against the tide of federal and state mandates to end diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives in a way few institutions have in recent weeks.

Iowa taxpayers provided about $104 million last school year directly to parents choosing to send their K-12 children to private schools.

The price tag for these education savings accounts, or vouchers, is expected to climb to $294 million this school year as more families become eligible. During the 2025-2026 school year, when income eligibility standards are removed, the cost is expected to reach $344 million, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency estimates.

I am not here to debate the merits of this program. Others can do that.

But should be no room for debate over whether this use of tax money for education savings accounts should be subject to unfettered scrutiny by the state auditor’s office, any more than the auditor should have authority to examine the Iowa Judicial Branch’s mishandling of court fees paid by litigants, or the Iowa Department of Transportation’s lax inventory controls, or the University of Iowa’s 50-year lease of its utilities system, or any other use of state tax money.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird again tried to put herself in the national spotlight two weeks ago as leader of a group of Republican attorneys general who fixed their sights on Costco over the warehouse retailer’s DEI policies.

The state attorneys sent a stern warning letter telling the company, “We … urge Costco to end all unlawful discrimination imposed by the company through diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) policies. … Costco should treat every person equally and based on their merit, rather than based on divisive and discriminatory DEI practices.”

The letter came about the same time as 98 percent of Costco’s shareholders voted *against* a proposal to cut the company’s DEI statements. The vote puts Costco executives in a tight spot of serving the wishes of shareholders or acquiescing to Bird and her friends.