FACT CHECK: Zach Lahn, Who Has a History of Attacking Teachers, Wants to Gut Funding for Iowa’s Public Schools
CEDAR RAPIDS – On the debate stage, Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn is desperately trying to rewrite his dangerous record of attacking Iowa schools and teachers.
Lahn has called Iowa teachers “evil” and said Iowa spends “too much money on education.” Meanwhile, the private school he runs two states away in Kansas is millions of dollars in debt, rejects kids with disabilities, and pushes far-right political ideologies onto kids.
Here’s what you need to know about Lahn’s attacks on public schools and teachers:
- Lahn doesn’t know when Iowa schools start, and during the KWQC debate, he proved that he doesn’t know about Iowa’s open enrollment system or Area Education Agencies.
- Lahn claims Iowa “is spending too much money on education,” said he is “all for ESAs,” and wants to expand the school voucher program to include homeschooling — leaving the door open to even more public school funding cuts.
- Lahn called his Kansas school “the model for reinventing education” in Iowa, even though it’s millions of dollars in debt, underpays teachers, and turns away students with disabilities.
- Lahn said the question of Iowa private schools accepting students with disabilities is “the wrong debate to be having.”
- Lahn has attacked Iowa teachers as “evil” and “sinister” and promised to “revoke the licenses of teachers seen as indoctrinating students,” but used his Kansas school to push far-right political ideologies from controversial figures like Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson onto kids.
- Lahn bad-mouthed Iowa public schools, including his alma mater, to promote his Kansas school to prospective parents — undermining his claim to be “the number one advocate for Iowa’s public school kids.”
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