Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement

06/01/2026

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/des-moines/2026/05/27/central-iowa-water-works-outdoor-watering-reduction-nitrates/90282530007/

05/28/2026

Paul Castro, Bettendorf school board president who has been on the board for more than two decades:

“That causes me to wonder, and the big wonder, why are these requests being made? Why are students abandoning our public schools to go to these other institutions? Is it school safety, not only for them, but for their school personnel? Is it underperforming academics, poorly, performing school districts, accountability, etc. Something is causing this, and some students just do better in a different environment, better stem programs, better language programs, etc.”

https://qctimes.com/news/local/education/article_b330ad37-4730-4611-bbae-2b4a2aa80671.html -source=mp-homepage

05/22/2026

"Summit has been flailing around to try to keep their project viable, and now it looks like it's falling apart," Wally Taylor, the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter attorney, said in a statement.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2026/05/13/summit-carbon-solutions-pipeline-iowa-route-cut-miles-wyoming-destination/90059865007/

05/21/2026

Welcome to Public School Strong Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock School District! The district became the 15th to join the movement, adopting a resolution calling for a 5% increase in funding and the phasing out of the private school voucher program.

05/20/2026

👏 Big shout out to Iowa CCI member Linda B. (holding the sign) and the Clinton area Public School Strong team! Thanks to their hard work, 500 residents signed a petition demanding fully funded public schools and an end to private school vouchers. Now, the school board will take up this resolution at its June 8 meeting!

Want to build a Public School Strong movement in your district? Connect with Tim Glaza at Iowa CCI: [email protected]. Let’s keep fighting for our schools and our kids! 💪📚 .

05/15/2026

Absentee ballots for the primary elections are now available to Iowans. Visit https://voterready.iowa.gov/ for more details!

05/08/2026

$47 million over three years. That's how much private school vouchers have cost the Des Moines School District since their inception three years ago. That's a whole lot teachers and funding for programs. Instead, the district is facing budget reductions that include cutting teaching positions.

This is another example of why Iowa CCI is helping everyday Iowans bring a resolution to their school district demanding the state fully fund Iowa's public schools and repeal the private school vouchers. Want to bring it to your local district? Contact [email protected].

The Hawkeye State implemented a taxpayer-funded private school scholarship program three years ago. It’s since cost Iowa’s largest public school district nearly $47.5 million in state funding.

05/06/2026

Are you personally affected by school budget cuts? Share your story now! https://forms.gle/fcsj1RufzCynwhzY9

Iowa lawmakers once again handed public schools a paltry 2% funding increase for the 2026-27 school year, which fails to keep up with inflation.

A decade of underfunding and a new private school voucher program that is projected to cost more than $700 million in its first three years have created a crisis for Iowa's public schools.

05/05/2026

No one says it better than farmer Darrel: “Being replaced by very large farms means most of the money leaves the area, if not all of it. Consolidation of this nature would certainly give very few people a lot of power to control the price of milk for one thing, but how we treat animals, how we treat people that work for you, the quality of our milk. It’s got to suffer at some point. We have to know there’s a limit.”

The Minnesota AG’s office has been meeting with small dairies, hearing their stories and learning more about the loss of small dairies while the big guys get bigger and bigger. That’s why we recently visited Darrel and Diane Mosel’s diversified 45-cow dairy in Ga***rd in Sibley County, MN where they’ve been farming for over 40 years.

05/01/2026

Victory! Cancer Gag dealt another people-powered blow at the federal level! Despite industry's multi-million dollar lobbying campaign, we continue to stop them, this time in the Farm Bill.

Iowa's U.S. representatives knew it would be a poison pill, with grassroots Iowans overwhelmingly in opposition to pesticide immunity.

Iowa Republicans cheered passage of the Farm Bill through the U.S. House after fighting to secure a future vote on the year-round sale of E15.