A Bridge Too Far

Schools and Bridges are the Brick-and-Mortar of American Democracy

Navigating life has gotten more complicated. A small bridge just west of Pilot Mound is being replaced, and the road is closed for the next 3 months. Inconvenient? Yes. Challenging? For sure! We're re-routing navigation habits and recalibrating E.T.A.s ingrained over the years. After the work's completed, the bridge will be better than ever when fans of Pilot Mound Days and the Shake the Ground Car Show arrive in June. (Fingers crossed)

We've heard a lot of news stories about our nation's fragile infrastructure this week. It's the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the mouth of the Patapsco River leading into Baltimore Harbor. Six construction workers were killed when a massive cargo ship struck the bridge at 2 a.m. on March 27, 2024.

The main shipping channel of the Port was reopened within 11 weeks, and traffic has been re-routed. The remnants of the old bridge will be demolished this spring, and the new bridge will open sometime in 2028 at an estimated cost of $1.7 billion. The new one will provide higher clearance, and will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology to protect it from increasingly larger cargo container ships.

Surprisingly, however, 2024 still was one of the Port of Baltimore's most productive years. It processed more farm and construction machinery than any other U.S. port, and ranked second in cars and light trucks.

Now there's a new threat of collision looming on the horizon of the Port of Baltimore: Trump's tariffs. More than one quarter of its total imports arrive from Mexico, Canada, and China.

Transportation Infrastructure Often Neglected

Following the Key Bridge collapse, more than 30 owners of 68 bridges across 19 states were instructed to conduct vulnerability assessments.

The bridge west of Pilot Mound was not one of them. But Iowa leads the nation with 22.8% of bridges in poor condition. Many are located on rural, county-owned roads with low-volume traffic. They often must support the weight of heavy agricultural equipment, trucks, and wagons.

The source of funding for our new bridge may be the Infrastructure Act of 2022, one of the signature accomplishments of the Biden Administration. Bridge construction signs typically don't advertise U.S. tax dollars at work, but we know Iowa received $432 million specifically for bridge replacement and repairs over five years. Unfortunately by the time the projects are completed, most Americans won't recall if the improvements stemmed from explicit public policy, or which administration deserves the credit.

During his first administration, Trump kept promising to spend $2 trillion to rebuild our nation's crumbling infrastructure. "We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation," he said in his inauguration address. He never was able to get the job done. In fact, Infrastructure Week became a running joke.

Biden's bipartisan infrastructure Law is the single largest dedicated bridge investment since construction of the Interstate Highway System. Repairing and rebuilding infrastructure is creating jobs for many, including the "The Bros" who voted for Trump.

The funding is funneled through the states. Many Republicans who voted against this bipartisan infrastructure legislation have taken credit for passing out this money to their constituents. Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks has attended ribbon-cutting ceremonies touting the funds for a highway interchange as well as a locks and dams upgrade on the Mississippi.

Public Education Infrastructure Shortchanged

Trump promotes himself as a builder. "I am the builder president – remember that," he said in 2017. Indeed he has built hotels, casinos, and apartments throughout his career. In his first administration, he also built about 450 miles of wall at our Mexican border to solve the problem of illegal immigration. (It hasn't been solved, and Mexico hasn't paid for it.)

But two months into his second administration, Trump's forte seems to be tearing down, dismantling, and destroying the pillars of U.S. government designed by our Founding Fathers. He's driven a bulldozer over the checks and balances of our three equal branches of government, along with the Rule of Law, and busted through the guardrails of our nonpartisan civil service workforce.

His signed 103 Executive orders are a bridge too far, as he takes a wrecking ball to our democratic foundations. Much of the demolition has been accomplished through his road work crew: a complicit Republican Congress and a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk.

Most recently Trump signed an Executive order to close the federal Dept. of Education. Less than 14% of the federal budget goes into education. But Trump's direction to Cabinet Secretary Linda McMahon has little to do with saving money.

Trump's stated goal is returning education to the states. . . where it's always been. States already oversee the curriculum standards and teacher certification. Yet Trump blames the federal Department of Education for lower student scores. How will we know if students are making improvements after 90% of Institute of Education Progress staffers tasked with completing the Nation's Report Card, have been sent home?

Most disappointing of all, Iowa Gov. Reynolds traveled to Washington to watch Trump sign the executive order closing the Department. She applauded these actions on social media and on Fox News.

Why would Iowa's governor do this? Reynolds wants the federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (low-income) sent to Iowa as block grants "with fewer bureaucratic strings attached".

How would this be an improvement for Iowa students? After all, we've already had a front-row seat on how this governor and legislature play fast and loose with our tax dollars, giving about $218 million away by year-end to private school students. Next year there will be no income restrictions whatsoever for families to qualify.

At the same time, the Governor and our legislature continue to underfund public schools. In 2024 the Legislature rolled over and approved the Governor's Area Educational Agency cuts impacting students with learning and physical disabilities as well as its role in professional teacher development.

Block grants to the states would require a vote of Congress. How does sending the same amount of federal money in block grants save money? Wide educational disparities already exist across the United States, due to school funding models based primarily on a mix of local property taxes and state aid. Block grants would exacerbate these disparities, as some states seek ways to deny supports and protections for students and use this funding for unauthorized purposes.

We know the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 calls for ending Title I within the next decade. The first step is converting it into a "no-strings-attached" block grant.

The doors of the Office of Civil Rights already have been blown off their hinges. College student aid, including Pell grants, direct student loans, and administration of FAFSA, would be carved up, along with special education, between the Small Business Administration and the Dept. of HHS. What expertise do these departments have in leading these arenas?

Trump lacks the authority to shutter a department created by Congress. We know Project 2025 calls for prioritizing private school choice funding. Trump has signed an Executive Order to do so.

President Carter elevated education to a federal department to highlight its national importance, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that all students have access to equal opportunities. As a former school board president, I don't want the education of our children relegated to an afterthought, or subject to 51 state interpretations of what merits a passing grade.

Expect Bridge Repairs & Road Detours

Pilot Mound’s whimsical five “exits”.

One thing is for sure: creating jobs, fixing aging infrastructure, investing in manufacturing and clean energy, and prioritizing education aren't Trump priorities.

Trump has no aim to build public infrastructure of lasting value, and Iowa's Republican Congressional leaders don't seem interested in the nuts and bolts of governing. Project 2025 has little to say about strengthening the middle class.

The U.S. educational system helped create a strong middle class. Our democratic republic rests on the shoulders of educated citizens. As the Supreme Court unanimously recognized in Brown v. Board of Education, public education "is the very foundation of good citizenship.”

When this country was settled by pioneers, schools and bridges were priorities. My great-great grandfather Elijah Adams built the first two frame bridges across the West Fork of the Little Sioux River and the first frame school in the mid-1850s near Smithland, the first settlement in Woodbury County.. The coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, with its iconic bridges, paved the way to bringing Americans together in the early 1900s.

Americans always have known the importance of building bridges and schools. Our existential challenge today is shining a spotlight on the long-term investments in jobs and infrastructure making a difference in the lives of people living in places where there no longer are local newspapers, and Fox News is the primary source of information.

Public schools are the brick-and-mortar binding our communities together, and bridging the divides in our country. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, more than 60 percent of voters oppose dismantling the Department of Education, with similar majorities supporting prioritizing education funding over tax cuts.

Francis Scott Key wrote our national anthem during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry at Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. The battle was a turning point in the War, but he didn't know until the next day's dawning if our young nation would survive.

The pillars of the new Francis Scott Key Bridge will be reinforced with what engineers call redundancies – duplicate systems or extra capacity in case primary system components fail. Our Founding Fathers had this foresight as they designed the blueprint of our democratic institutions, based on three branches of government.

As Americans, we'll be tasked with the long, hard work of repairing longstanding deficiencies in aging bridges as well as inadequate school funding. We'll have to reconstruct communication bridges with our diverse neighbors, and turn out to vote: the nuts and bolts of government.

Here, closer to home, as our bridge is replaced, we'll be re-routing to gravel roads, which are unpredictable, difficult, and sometimes dangerous to navigate. Gravel roads don't have road markings, and require a different set of driving skills. If we skid, we'll have to ease off the gas and the brakes, focus on steering, and gently turn the wheel in the direction the vehicle is pulling to regain control and get safely back on track.

Yes, navigating life – and our local roads – has become more difficult. As Americans we must expect detours and roadblocks to be the norm. We'll have set our GPS for alternate routes to get safely back on track.

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