Winners

One of the main criticisms of organic and locally produced food is the often prohibitive price that can make it unavailable to lower-income shoppers. But Iowa's farmers markets are leading the way when it comes to creating access for those of all socio-economic levels. The Iowa Department of Human Services and the Iowa Farm Bureau have teamed up to provide farmers' market vendors with portable, wireless "swipe machines" that accept food-assistance cards, as well as Visa and Mastercard. With 167 swipe-card machines spread throughout the state, Iowa vendors count more than twice the number of machines as the next closest state, New York, which has 63. The machines allow cash-strapped customers to choose healthful, fresh, local fare, and they benefit Iowa's small farmers, as well: Vendors who have used the machines reported substantial increases in profits. At the same time, nearly a quarter of their total transactions were with customers on food-assistance programs. "Iowans love to get their food direct from the farmer," said DHS Director Kevin Concannon, in a statement, "and now with the help from the Farm Bureau, we're making it easier for people with limited resources to participate."

We know this sounds like crazy talk, but the U.S. Department of Education is forcing Iowa to test its prospective teachers on how much they actually know, intellectually speaking. Starting with the college graduates of May 2007, Iowa's new elementary school teachers will be required to take the Praxis II test, a written exam that is already administered to education majors in most other states. Until now, the Iowa Department of Education has been critiquing prospective teachers in the classroom during their student teaching. The state agency says it will continue that assessment - which gauges, among other things, how well student teachers handle their classrooms - while also complying with the federal mandate, as part of No Child Left Behind. The Iowa Education Association is kicking up a fuss about having to take the written test, yet people in other fields realize that education majors are not always from the deep end of the gene pool. Mind you, a true teacher is that rarest of all birds, a person with both book-learning and the emotional ability to nurture young minds. If members of the teachers' union sincerely care about the welfare of Iowa's children, surely they'll see the wisdom of baseline academic standards for their peers.

Losers

Folks on the state's gravy train don't seem to grasp this concept yet, but Iowans are sick to death of bureaucrats who get fat bonuses on top of their already-bloated regular paychecks. Des Moines Register reporter Jonathan Roos did us all a favor by tallying bonuses to state employees - by his count, $1 million in 22 months. (That's not even counting CIETC payola, he points out, since CIETC isn't considered a state agency.) The Iowa Legislature's Oversight Committee has been sniffing around in this bonus business, getting increasingly nauseated by the stench of it all. Particularly egregious is the $59,231 to Democratic fat cat Mike Blouin, the man who made it his job to hand out corporate freebies through the Values Fund. While we're on the subject, tell us this: If Tom Vilsack were really so impartial in the gubernatorial primary, why didn't he give Chet Culver some extra spending cash so he could quit his day job and campaign full-time?

Meanwhile, economists have been predicting that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in response to rising consumer prices. When the economy tanks, of course, business owners can take a hit, and private-sector workers' salaries can flat-line. So what does that mean to school employees and other government workers? Why, nothing at all, of course: In their fairy-tale world, annual longevity raises are inevitable, and extra stipends are de rigueur. CV

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