DeJear says police are not the problem, inaction on key issues is

Deidre DeJear is depicted by Republicans as someone who does not stand up for law enforcement and who wants to defund the police, but during an Oct. 12 meet-and-greet in Newton the Democratic gubernatorial candidate suggested that could not be further from the truth.

“I know you all have seen the ads. ‘Defund the police.’ Nobody running on the Democratic ticket in the State of Iowa subscribes to that notion,” DeJear said. “I personally don’t subscribe to that notion … To say that you believe in defund the police, I believe that that is a solution to a problem which points to police.”

If defunding the police is a solution, then that makes police are the problem, she said. And DeJear “firmly believes” the police are not the problem.

“Our problem is our current governor’s failure to address policies that best impact our economies, our education system, our health care system, our corrections system — that is the problem,” DeJear said to applause from guests. “We are not running against the police. I am running against Gov. (Kim) Reynolds.”

Still, DeJear acknowledged she did not get up from her seat during a standing ovation over Reynolds’ comments about law enforcement at her state address. DeJear heard the governor praise the state’s police officers “the way that she should,” but it was the inaction to support those words that made her stay seated.

Reynolds did not talk about how she was going to alleviate the burdens being placed on police by a failing mental health care system. The governor missed the opportunity to talk about how she would bring more people into the work force related to public safety and corrections.

“This is why I sat down,” DeJear said. “When she had an opportunity to really lift the bar for police, the best she could do was a $1,000 bonus paid for by the Biden administration. I could not stand for that. Because we cannot stand for the pomp and circumstance without action anymore.”

PUBLIC EDUCATION IS PART OF IOWA HERITAGE

Education is also a key issue coming into the election, especially after a year of debates regarding school choice and educational savings accounts/vouchers. Many decried the use of public tax dollars going towards private schools. In Jasper County, school superintendents have been openly opposed to the idea.

Conservative lawmakers are adamant the next proposal will pass, especially after the governor successfully endorsed against Republican incumbents who were not in favor of the school choice bill. DeJear said public education is part of Iowa’s “heritage” and was supported by leadership from both parties.

DeJear said the governor is “circumventing from a blueprint that we knew that worked: prioritizing education.” When Reynolds had an opportunity to do something about it, DeJear said the governor found $55 million of taxpayer money to fund private tuition for 2 percent of Iowa’s students.

“Is that right?” DeJear asked the crowd.

No!

“Does that express freedom by any stretch of the imagination?”

No!

RESIDENTS ASK QUESTIONS ON WAGES, COLLECTING BARGAINING

Max Tipton, of Newton, recalled a KTIV story that reported Pocahontas Area Schools had to dismiss early due to a substitute teacher shortage. Tipton said if Reynolds has enough tax dollars to “give her friends and donors who run private schools,” she should think about giving salary increases to those teachers.

DeJear agreed, saying Iowa needs to invest in education. Keeping teachers around with a 4 percent annual increase to their pay could help. When it comes to average pay of teachers in the state, DeJear said Iowa does OK. But where it needs to do better is starting pay.

“I want to make sure that when our students are coming out of college that they have a fair shot of only having to work one job to make ends meet, and we can’t have our teachers making $35,000 in starting pay because it’s going to distract them having to bus tables and do this and that,” DeJear.

Another resident referenced the removal of teachers’ collective bargaining rights, a practice many teachers want restored.

“We gotta open that table back up. We gotta not only open it back up and restore collective bargaining in our state, we have to enhance it as well,” DeJear said. “You can see why this administration and her predecessor wanted to take away that voice because that table requires compromise.”

To DeJear, compromises and building consensus is not their style of leadership.

“But that’s my style of leadership,” she said.

MENTAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM HAS UNREASONABLE CHALLENGES

DeJear disagrees with the school choice legislation, describing it as robbing from one group to give to another group. But the Democratic candidate sees strength in the state’s education system, as well as the state’s health care and mental health care system. But they’re not without flaws or challenges.

Deficiencies in mental health care access that are putting burdens on officers, on hospitals and corrections systems employees. The pandemic only exacerbated the challenges of mental health care.

“Our state was dealt a number and we know that folks are now needing the access to the services but they’re having to wait,” DeJear said, recalling a story of a father in Dubuque whose 17-year-old son was having thoughts of self-harm and was taken to an emergency room.

The boy couldn’t see a psychiatrist for another six months. DeJear said that is absolutely unreasonable, but there is a reason for it. There are less than 30 child psychiatrists in the state and about half-million students. The next option the doctors gave the Dubuque father was a bed in Sioux City, six hours away.

“Again, unreasonable,” DeJear said. “But there’s a reason for it. We got less than 750 mental health care beds in this state and we have more than 3,000,000 people. Our governor is perpetuating a crisis right now. The last best thing that doctor could offer that kid was to see a psychologist in two months.”

Still, DeJear said that is unreasonable.

SYSTEMS CANNOT PERFORM IF THEY STARVED OF RESOURCES

The damages of a broken mental health care system are clear. Suicide rates have increase. Instances of domestic violence and substance abuse are up. Rural jails are becoming holding facilities for mental health care patients. This is something neither cops nor corrections personnel signed up for.

“Folks who previously worked in mental health care facilities now working in corrections are seeing their patients are now inmates,” DeJear said. “This is not the direction we need to go. We gotta fill 8,100 jobs in this state. We gotta make sure communities are safe. We want our people to have access to opportunity.”

Health care is a struggle for those who are uninsured, too, but DeJear said even the insured are experiencing problems.

“Folks who are insured are being denied services, turned away. We can only imagine what the most vulnerable amongst us are experiencing,” DeJear said. “We need a health care system that is accessible and affordable to each and every one of you all as Iowans.”

DeJear said the current leadership in Iowa is starving the systems in such a way that the state cannot adequately judge them right now.

“I’m a former basketball coach,” DeJear said. “What would it look like if I sent my girls out on a Friday night game and say, ‘Y’all better win, but I didn’t give them food or water the entire day.’ How do we expect our systems to perform if we cannot give them the wherewithal, the opportunity, to do so?”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext 560 or at cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com