Curbing Caucus Night extracurriculars in Iowa schools, colleges

DES MOINES — A Democrat in the Iowa Senate has drafted legislation that would direct Iowa schools and colleges to keep the calendar clear on Caucus night.

“We shouldn’t have classes and extracurricular activities and practices conflict with Caucuses,” says Senator Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids.

Hogg says it’s time to ensure students, staff and parents don’t have to choose between school activities and participating in the Iowa Caucuses.

“This is important because Iowa is first-in-the-nation because we do it best,” Hogg says. “If we want to do it best, we need to make sure that students and people associated with our schools can participate that in the caucus process.”

As a side benefit to his proposal, Hogg says school facilities then would be available as sites for the precinct-level meetings.

“We are really challenging the capacity of some of our facilities, so we need to have as many facilities available as we can for Caucus Night,” Hogg says.

Hogg has posted his idea on social media and discovered some schools have already scheduled events on February 3rd, 2020. Hogg says that’s why the legislature should address the issue this year, to give schools and colleges in Iowa time to adjust their schedules.