Dubuque Telegraph Herald. April 20, 2024.
Editorial: Jochum served Iowa, Dubuque well for more than 3 decades
As the Iowa Legislature wraps up its 2024 session, so too does the sun set on the political career of a dedicated Iowa leader — Dubuque’s own Sen. Pam Jochum.
For more than three decades, Jochum has been engaged, knowledgeable and diligent in her work on behalf of not only her constituents but all Iowans. Citizens of the state and of the Dubuque area have had a stalwart advocate in Jochum.
Jochum’s political career began in the fall of 1992 when she first was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives. In 2008, she won election to the Iowa Senate, representing what is now Senate District 36, encompassing the city of Dubuque and portions of Dubuque County, and served most recently as Iowa Senate minority leader. Jochum headed to Des Moines when Iowa was still reeling from the farm crisis and Dubuque from dark days of 23% unemployment. But she always believed in the best of Iowans and knew brighter days lay ahead.
Born and raised in Dubuque, Jochum often has referred to the strong roots, work ethic and ideals she gained here. She graduated at the top of her class at Wahlert High School and Loras College. Influences growing up included her father, who worked for Dubuque Packing Co.; her mother, who raised six children and volunteered at neighborhood schools; and the sisters of the multiple religious orders in Dubuque.
“The good sisters instilled a passion for justice in me. They taught with their words and their actions that all persons are created equal, and they taught us that to fail to speak up and do what’s right is to fail to do our duty as a citizen,” Jochum once told the TH. “Democracy, equality, justice were not just words we learned in school. The sisters taught us that they were ideals that we should seek to advance in our personal and our public lives.”
A veteran of the Capitol, Jochum knew how to make an impact — even when her party was in the minority. She understands the nuance of the legislative process and long has been committed to transparency in government. She has used her deep roots to form relationships with elected officials on both sides of the aisle, as well as at state departments. That connectedness paid dividends in amending legislation to make it better — something for which Jochum long has had a knack.
Jochum’s effectiveness as a legislator best was showcased in her advocacy for the state’s most vulnerable people. As the mother of a daughter with an intellectual disability, Jochum never needed reminding about the challenges people face, whether those challenges are medical, financial or emotional.
During her time in office, Jochum has been one of the most consistent faces in Iowa Democratic politics — spending a stint as Senate president, aiding numerous Democrats’ presidential campaigns ahead of the Iowa caucuses and holding significant influence over her caucus in the Legislature.
There are those who might look at a lawmaker who served for 30-plus years and put them into the mold of “career politician.” But that label doesn’t really gain traction with anyone who has paid attention to Jochum’s track record. She has been a tireless voice for Iowans, particularly those who have no voice of their own. That has been her motivation, not gaining political clout.
Over the years, Jochum held numerous leadership positions in both the House and the Senate and made many friends — and political opponents — in her district and in the Legislature. But senators from both sides of the aisle, in the final days of another contentious session, said Jochum is a prime example of how lawmakers should serve.
In a resolution, passed by the full Senate to honor her retirement, these words captured some of her accomplishments: “Senator Jochum has had an inspirational legislative career, being described as passionate, tenacious and committed to her community and to dignity for all people; serving as a tremendous role model for women; and being respected for her ability to build coalitions and get things done for Dubuque and for Iowa; all while humbly acknowledging that ‘you just can’t ask for more of an honor than for people to have enough belief and trust in you that they want you to be their voice.’”
Jochum’s extensive knowledge of the issues, the legislative process and her record of accomplishment have served Dubuque and Iowa well. With gratitude, we salute her decades of hard work and leadership. May she inspire others to shine in public service.
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Des Moines Register. April 19, 2024.
Editorial: Don’t ask Iowa Student Loan borrowers, some of them desperate, to sign away their rights
It’s true that we all should read and understand anything given to us before we sign it. But we can uphold that principle while still discouraging onerous provisions buried in fine print.
Young adults are bound to make a few ill-considered decisions and “learn the hard way” that nobody is required to look out for a grown-up’s interests. But there is a difference between allowing people to experience the consequences of their actions and setting them up for failure.
A student-loan practice that’s the subject of lawsuits in Iowa is on the wrong side of that divide, and one way or another it should stop.
The lawsuits, now consolidated in federal court, allege that Iowa Student Loan, a 45-year-old nonprofit whose directors are appointed by the governor, took advantage of borrowers through something called a “confession of judgment.” Register reporter William Morris explored their stories in a recent investigative piece.
A confession of judgment allows a creditor to take immediate action if a borrower gets behind on payments without waiting for court proceedings or having to prove the delinquency. To satisfy the debt, the borrower’s bank accounts can be frozen and wages garnished — without even a requirement to tell the person that it’s happening.
The people suing Iowa Student Loan all signed the “confessions” as they sought to resolve difficulties in paying back their loans. Two plaintiffs had attended institutions that have faced scrutiny for shady practices, and their lawyers say they could have won challenges to the collection attempts in court.
“Our clients, who had no access to a lawyer, signed a document that waived every single right they had under the law,” Alex Kornya of Iowa Legal Aid told Morris. “They received nothing in return.”
Due process rights are worth more than a discount coupon
Iowa Student Loan says that procuring the documents allows the nonprofit to offer better settlement terms to delinquent borrowers because of the savings from avoided litigation.
Even assuming for argument’s sake that money that would have gone to lawyers and court costs really does go directly into more favorable deals, it’s hard to imagine settlement terms appealing enough to warrant voluntarily giving up due process and other rights. And that’s the issue: Is agreeing to a confession of judgment “voluntary” in any practical sense of the word if it’s part of a stack of dense paperwork filled with legalese that a student lender puts in front of a 20-something experiencing financial difficulty, perhaps even financial desperation?
Many states have banned or more heavily regulated confessions of judgment. Commentators say they make sense as an agreement between a pair of sophisticated business entities that are on relatively equal footing and can derive mutual benefit from excluding the judicial system from their debt repayment terms. None of that, of course, describes the student-lending context.
Iowa Student Loan would do better to abandon the practice, even if it can prove that it saves borrowers money, and even if it ultimately prevails in court. The Iowa Legislature passed numerous new rules for Iowa Student Loan in 2008 after official investigations and reporting by the Register and others illuminated how it was misleading students and families about their options for cheaper borrowing. Then-Attorney General Tom Miller wrote in a report that year that Iowa Student Loan “should be held to the highest standards of conduct” because of its mandate to serve public interest. Its very name conveys legitimacy and trustworthiness to Iowans.
Using confessions of judgment puts the lender in a bad light, regardless of any upsides. And they are not rare: The Register’s Morris reported that Iowa Student Loan is filing about 10 of them a month even in the time since the lawsuits challenging them were filed.
Yes, read the fine print. But we don’t need this tool.
The issue is also worth the Iowa Legislature’s attention. The state should uphold due process principles, in particular at least notifying borrowers before wage garnishment or other adverse actions kick in. Perhaps the statute can be recrafted more narrowly to allow confession of judgment to remain a tool for sophisticated and similarly situated entities. But if not, the Legislature should err on the side of protecting consumers and barring their use outright.
All of this said, it’s undeniably true that we all should read and understand anything given to us before we sign it — even in an era when ubiquitous online terms of use agreements make signing away rights without reading them seem like normal behavior.
That’s a reminder for young and old alike. But we can uphold that principle while still discouraging onerous provisions buried in fine print. And if anybody should aspire for better, it’s the state-affiliated education lending entity.
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Daily Nonpareil. April 20, 2024.
Editorial: Western civilization bill reflects an infamous historical tradition
Ignorance is Strength.
That’s one of the mantras in George Orwell’s classic “1984,” a book that’s still taught in some public schools that don’t cower from a trend in conservative politics that appears obsessed with preventing teenagers from discovering the secret that sex can be pleasurable.
Actually, we don’t quite understand the zeal of the book banners, but that’s a topic for another day.
What we do understand is Orwell’s admonition in “1984” that, “Those who control the past control the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
Who controls the present? In the Iowa Statehouse, it’s Republicans — predominately white Christian conservatives. On a more individual level, it’s people who have found success in American society, and often those whose ancestors have had success accumulating wealth, power and influence.
It’s not surprising to see them weigh in on what’s taught in history classrooms. After all, as the aphorism goes, ” History is written by the victors.”
But that’s not to say they should be issuing edicts to social studies teachers, and the emphasis on “Western civilization” — which could easily be understood as “white civilization” — is, as the TikTokers might say, problematic.
The state lawmakers are following in the footsteps of others who have tried to influence what’s taught in schools. Whether it’s the fights of yore over adopting Common Core or the recent crusade against the Critical Race Theory boogeyman, it’s a feature of American politics.
One might reasonably ask why curriculum isn’t left to educators. However, Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, flatly rejected the notion that “professionals should be the only ones who weigh in on American history.” He went on to assert “rote memorization gets a bad rap these days,” saying it has its place in schools.
The bill also follows in a Red Scare tradition of requiring schools to teach “the crimes against humanity that have occurred under communist regimes since 1917.” We started out quoting from “1984,” which itself reflects the scourge of Soviet totalitarianism. Furthermore, we tend to agree with politicians who caution us about the Chinese Communist Party.
But we’re suspicious about the mandate, even if we agree schools should teach the horrors perpetuated by the Soviets and other communists governments. We suspect the aim is to link communism with socialism, and to use both words indiscriminately against anyone questioning the political status quo.
Framing the discussion in way the bill does also implicitly rejects interrogating what was done in the name of combatting communism, whether that’s Cold War domestic politics, the Vietnam War, the Iran–Contra scandal or clearing the way for brutal dictators like Augusto Pinochet.
Yet that’s American history, too, and the history of Western civilization, even if it doesn’t make the list of topics enumerated by state lawmakers.
We hope that Iowa students look beyond their textbooks and ask what’s not being presented in class. There’s more than one interpretation of history, and remaining ignorant takes away your strength.
END