Republicans continue this week to serve up a rich feast of lunacy in the Iowa Legislature, including my favorite (so far) --- a proposal to outfit every classroom in the state other than those devoted to physical education or special education with internet-accessible cameras.
Under House File 2177, the cameras would feed to livestreams that could be viewed on the internet by parents, guardians and others --- including, one assumes, pedophiles. The bill's chief sponsor is Rep. Norlin Mommsen (left), a farmer from northeast Iowa's DeWitt. Here's a link to an MSNBC report about the bill.
Republican State Sen. Jake Chapman, Adel, also now has introduced his bill that would declare school teachers and administrators who distribute “obscene material or hard-core pornography” to students guilty of serious misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,875. Definitions of obscene material and hard-core pornography, of course, would have to be added to the Iowa code.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who declared yesterday that the COVID-19 pandemic will end on Feb. 15 and who shares Chapman's concern that school libraries are repositories for pornography, continues her push to siphon taxpayer dollars from public to private education.
In all fairness, Mommsen's bill probably doesn't have a future, nor does Chapman's. The fate of Reynolds' plan is unclear. But all provide insight into the level of GOP fear and loathing when it comes to public education in Iowa and those who provide it.
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