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Justin Brady: [00:00:00] From the Jethro’s Barbecue Studio, it is the Iowa Podcast. And election season’s heating up, and of course, today we’re joined by Senator Sarah Trone Garriott, state senator looking to go, go over to Congress. Senator, thank you so much for joining us on the Iowa Podcast. Appreciate it.

Sarah Trone: Thank you so much, Justin

Justin Brady: Thank you. Before we get started, everybody. if you like barbecue like I do, go to Iowapodcast.com/ Scroll to the top, tap the Jethro card, and if you buy a $100 gift card, you get a $30 gift card. Boom. How about that? Chicken wings. That’s all I’m gonna say. Healthcare is a big thing now. I mean, it’s been a Big thing for years. That kind of sounds stupid for me saying that, but healthcare has been one of the campaign things you’ve been running on quite heavily. I would say, looking at your posts, it’s like 80% of what you’re talking about these days And so here’s the big question to start things out. I’m sure we’ll drill down into this. Why… I- it does seem like we’re focusing, and it’s not just you, it’s everybody, we’re focusing on [00:01:00] healthcare insurance, not necessarily healthcare costs. Why is that? Like, is this, is this an easier thing to get our, uh, gr- get a grip on, or am I just misreading things?

Sarah Trone: Well, the two are connected. So the more uninsured neighbors we have, the higher our costs will be, because when folks don’t have coverage, they still end up in the emergency room, they still end up in the hospital, but now there’s no one to pay for that. And so those costs get spread to all of us, which raises costs for everyone. So cutting Medicaid means more of our neighbors won’t have coverage. Not extending those ACA subsidies means more of our neighbors do not have healthcare coverage. That’s gonna end up raising costs on all of us, but it also means that a lot of our neighbors can’t get the care they needed when they need it.

Justin Brady: Yeah. And so w- That, that is what I’m talking about. though, because Medicaid- would be paying for it. And so one of the big questions that comes up is, in, and this isn’t a fair comparison, but it’s, [00:02:00] it’s the one I can grab out of thin air right now, which is when our car costs, like if we get in a wreck or get a fender bender, when those costs get, go up, we don’t really say, “Well, my insurance is to blame.” But in healthcare for some reason, we focus on the payer, right? We focus on Medicaid or we focus on insurance. So why isn’t more being done? Or, um, are you planning on doing something to address the costs, the red tape, the FDA, and maybe even addressing some root costs like food and cancers that are actually adding to the healthcare costs and adding to those insurance premiums?

Sarah Trone: Yeah. All of these things need to be addressed. So we know there’s a real issue with, um, our cancer risk here in the state. We’re number two in the nation for new cancer cases. There are some lifestyle things. There are some environmental factors that are significant that are causing Iowa to stand out in this really bad way. We’ve gotta get to the bottom of that. That means research. [00:03:00] That means access to healthy food. That means clean water. That means addressing the radon exposure that we have here in the state. We also need to look at how, um, the insurance s- system and the coverage system that we have might be making it harder for folks to get access to care, denying claims, refusing services, increasing costs through out-of-pockets and premiums. You know, a lot of those things are raising the costs as well. And then we need to make sure that all of our neighbors are covered in some way. People need access to healthcare, and we need to make sure that our neighbors can pay for it one way or another, because we know it’s much more expensive down the road if you can’t get that preventative care you need. If you don’t get diagnosed early, you’re gonna have much higher costs. You’re gonna have much poorer outcomes. And so if we can get people healthier and make sure they can get access when they need it, that’s gonna save everyone money in the long run. [00:04:00]

Justin Brady: [00:05:00] What are some of those lifestyle and environmental things that you’ve seen that you think we can reverse fairly quickly?

Sarah Trone: fairly quickly. I don’t know if there’s a lot of quick turnaround, but, you know, Iowans, [00:06:00] we, we have a problem with binge drinking. Um, tobacco use is an issue in our state, and we see that rising. And then we know that we have a significant problem with our state’s water quality. We’ve got the highest rate of nitrate pollution in the nation. There are approaches that can really reduce the amount of nitrate running off the fields into our water, and to address cleaning the water as well when those levels get too high, but none of those things are fast to implement. They take time to engage. Um, and then radon’s a huge risk here in Iowa. So in terms of new cancers, we found out that, you know, Iowans, for the most part, don’t die at a higher rate of cancer, even though we’re getting diagnosed at a higher rate. But the one place that’s not true, we are getting diagnosed at a higher rate, and we are dying at a higher rate, is lung cancer. And it’s not just tobacco use. It’s radon too. And so in the [00:07:00] state legislature, I was really glad to see a bill pass, and I was able to support a bill to make sure that radon remediation is part of all new construction. Because when you do it on the front end, it’s a lot less expensive than trying to do it after the fact, and it’s much more effective. That can save lives. We know that radon is a huge risk for Iowans

Justin Brady: So these th- these seem like categories to me that are fairly, I don’t wanna m- be hurtful to somebody, but fairly obvious. Like ra- I mean, I feel like we’re living in the ’80s as of the past year because I’ve heard radon come up a few times. And I mean, we didn’t know the dangers of radon in the ’80s, but alcohol and smoking, like, and so I’m like, what, people f- people are fairly certain that alcohol, smoking, and now at least radon cause cancer. So outside of public education campaigns, which was al- already done in cons- considerable amount, why the focus on those things? Why not the focus on, like, some of the agricultural things? Why not the focus on food? And, and the One of the reasons I wanna [00:08:00] ask, and this doesn’t necessarily show a conflict, but one of the things that I know your constituents and some critics have said is earlier when there was the SNAP law, um, they, they were going to take SNAP and restrict, uh, the sugary foods and stuff, stuff We’re finding out like ultra-processed food that may cause cancer, but you were against that. So how do we hold both these views, or is it the same view and there’s an underlying principle we’re not seeing?

Sarah Trone: So we need to clarify. The SNAP legislation was to prevent people from buying taxable items. That is not based on nutrition quality at all, and it was really confusing to people. So you could buy a sandwich at certain stores, provided that there was no microwave in the facility that you could use to heat it up. Then it would be taxable. Same sandwich, just different places to sell it, um, would change the tax status. You could buy a cup of cut-up fruit, but if it was packaged with a spoon, you could not, because then it would be taxable. You could [00:09:00] always buy cake. Baked goods were exempt. That’s not making people healthier. So if we really wanna make people healthier, we need to actually focus on nutrition quality and not just these general categories of taxable or not taxable, because the consumer can’t tell at the grocery store, “Can you buy the granola bar?” “Yes, if it has flour in it, but no if it doesn’t.” You know, so those were the little details that were completely opaque to everyone who was actually shopping. And so that’s why I opposed the law, ’cause it wasn’t actually going to achieve what we wanted. Now, if we want to incentivize healthy, healthy choices, there are some really great programs that do that, like the Double Up Food Bucks bill, which I was able to support year after year, and it actually passed this year. And it matches up to $10 a week for folks who get SNAP to buy fresh produce from local farmer markets and grocery stores. And that actually has demonstrated real results [00:10:00] and has a really big positive impact. Those are the things we need to be putting our effort into. So yes, we need to work on food quality. We need to work on food access, but expensive food is usually the healthier food, and people need help being able to buy the healthy food, the high-quality proteins and the fresh fruits and vegetables. Those things cost more in the grocery store

Justin Brady: Yeah, I mean, I’ll, I’ll disagree a little bit. I do think like, uh, just the way we cook, we cook at home a lot. And one of the reasons we cook at home a lot is because it’s really expensive to eat out. And I, I think you can actually cook really healthy meals for really cheap. We can… You can disagree. We can get into it if you want to. I have a

Sarah Trone: definitely more than going out to a restaurant. But if you’ve got $10 for the week and you need to buy food for your kids and that’s all you’ve got, are you gonna buy $10 worth of mac and cheese? It’s 10 boxes, a dollar a box, or are you gonna get six or seven organic apples? I mean, the choice is clear. You buy the cheap, high calorie, low nutrition food that will fill [00:11:00] people up, but it’s not gonna give your body what it

Justin Brady: Sure. So

Sarah Trone: And those are the choices that people are making because they really don’t have the funds to buy the really healthy items in the grocery store, ’cause they are more expensive.

Justin Brady: Right. So eating… Okay, so this is good. This is a g- great distinction because eating healthy i- can be really, really cheap. However, people are making the simple trade-offs just based on cost and how they feel. Nutrition’s bad, but they don’t know that. It’s, you know… And I will say going to the grocery store is like, understanding what’s healthy and what’s not healthy is almost like learning a new language. And so to put a cap on it, It’s almost like yeah, okay, cool, SNAP benefits should not be going. to unhealthy things. I feel that we fell really, really short in defining healthy and unhealthy and made things worse. Is this a fair- Yeah.

Sarah Trone: Yeah, I think so. And I think there’s, there’s ways we can really get at the healthy aspect. Unfortunately, if you wanna do that in a simple way, it’s not so simple

Justin Brady: Yeah. Um, I wanna talk about one of the other things you’ve been talking about a lot lately, which [00:12:00] is the big beautiful bill and cl- and Medicare funding and closing of clinics. Um, are we really, like, The big beautiful bill just passed right? And so within months we saw Mercy making announcements that they were gonna be closing things. Do we know- these things are related?

Sarah Trone: Um, they’ve said they’re related. When Mercy made its announcements, they said it was because of the Medicaid cuts. And so hospital systems, this is a significant amount of money that they’re going to not be bringing in that won’t be available to pay for healthcare. It’s a $1 billion loss per year for just the state of Iowa. That’s a big cut to anticipate, and so they need to start making those changes right now. And so the three clinics that have closed, it was announced it’s because the Medicaid cuts are so significant they can’t keep these clinics open.

Justin Brady: So it is Mercy? is one of the big ones, Right. And I think 2022 Trinity Health restructured. That was a loss of 126 [00:13:00] million in 2023, a loss of 50 million in 2024. This is before the big beautiful bill. They closed Mercy One in Primghar. Uh, they closed one in Gladbrook, one in Urbandale, one in Sutherland. These are all 2024, 2023. In Dysart, 2025. Traer, 2025. Um, and so there w- there was a couple lawsuits in there too. We’re not gonna get into that. I can post that if anyb- if

Sarah Trone: we already have a bad trend Right … and these Medicaid cuts are now fast-tracking that trend and making it even worse. And so-

Justin Brady: don’t have enough data to know that for sure yet though, because it was already like, I see a ship on fire, and then I see legislation that may or may not impact that ship on fire. I’m kinda like, okay, maybe it would’ve…” sunk it, but it kinda looked like it was on a, it was kinda Struggling before then, right?

Sarah Trone: It was struggling, and it was struggling because Medicaid does not reimburse at the true cost of care. Our state’s Medicaid is based on just kind of a feeling that Iowa doesn’t really need [00:14:00] as much money as other states, that things should be cheaper here. But we haven’t seen our Medicaid rates increase for a lot of services in 20 years. You can’t hold reimbursement rates at the same level for 20 years and expect there to be providers who will take that rate because costs have continued to rise. And so when it comes to dental care, I had a dentist tell me that they would be better off giving a patient a $100 bill and telling them to go somewhere else than taking that Medicaid patient because Medicaid doesn’t even cover the cost of the staff to do the tooth cleaning, let alone the facility, the X-rays, the doctor’s time, anything else. You know, we, we need a Medicaid system that truly covers the cost of care so that providers can take Medicaid patients, and because it doesn’t, facilities, providers can serve less and less, and that means [00:15:00] that more and more people are needing Medicaid support, um, then those clinics have to close. Those providers can’t stay in those communities. And so it’s been a downward trend. These significant cuts are fast-tracking that. And so when you talk to hospital administrators and, and folks who work in the healthcare industry, they will tell you Medicaid is a significant part of it. These cuts are huge, and it will be a really rough, um, way forward as we actually see them come into effect

Justin Brady: So, I mean, like one of the questions I have, and this isn’t something I have like other knowledge of. We, everybody knows we don’t do that on this show. It’s just a legit question, which is if Medicaid is paying out that little for clinics and hospitals and it’s such a nuisance for people to deal with, why do cuts to that program rep- in your mind threaten so many closures if it’s this minuscule program anyway? Like why are we so reliant on this program to keep things funded?

Sarah Trone: It’s not a miniscule, miniscule [00:16:00] program. It covers 20% of Iowans, 40% of Iowa births, and so

Justin Brady: Whoa, Whoa, Medicaid covers 40% of Iowa births?

Sarah Trone: are paid

Justin Brady: Holy cow

Sarah Trone: So it is a significant program, but, you know, it pays less than your private insurance would pay for the same services. And so hospitals take a loss there, and in order to cover that loss, they shift costs to other areas. They’ve been able to balance out and make it work, but these cuts are so significant, you know, the balance, the delicate balance they’ve tried to achieve has been completely thrown off. Now they’re trying to anticipate that and get ready for that so that it’s not a really rough, um, impact, and it’s already hurting our neighbors. So we’ve got thousands of folks in Ottumwa, in Centerville, the south side of Des Moines, who have lost their primary care providers. They’ve gotta go somewhere else. But for the folks in Ottumwa and Centerville, that means driving an hour [00:17:00] or more just to find a doctor

Justin Brady: Yeah. Um, I think the concern everybody has, and you may… I, I’m not, uh, uh, I, I’m not expecting you have the answer to this, right? I’m not expecting that Iowans send you to Congress and you go wave a magic wand and fix everything. But I think, I mean, plenty of people would probably like that. But I think the concern everybody has is we have the Affordable Care Act, whether you love it or hate it. Some people are like, “Oh, it’s the worst. thing ever,” some people are like, “The best thing ever.” We’ve thrown Money at it, right? This is the common refrain. It got worse. So at what point do we step back and, and, and again, I know, you know, I don’t wanna go too far in the weeds on this stuff, but at what point do we s- step back and say, “You know what? Maybe we need to deregulate a few things. Maybe we need to open up more free market, cut more red tape, and let more competition into this space to disrupt what are a few fairly large companies that control most of the costs”?

Sarah Trone: There is an issue with monopolies in healthcare and healthcare coverage for sure, but there were some really good things about the Affordable Care Act. Having [00:18:00] coverage for preexisting conditions is really important for our neighbors. My mom just finished cancer treatment. We need to make sure that our neighbors who get through a significant health issue can continue to get coverage. That’s something that we didn’t have before the Affordable Care Act. We expanded Medicaid, and more of our neighbors were covered, and that actually made a really big positive impact for the state of Iowa. We saw the number of uninsured people significantly decrease, and that helped keep our rural hospitals and clinics going. But now we’re moving in the wrong direction. We’ve got more people losing their coverage, losing access to that care. The care is going to pay less, um, so it’s, it’s really getting squeezed, and we’re gonna see the negative impacts of that. You know, we need to make changes to our healthcare system. We need to look at what works and really try to improve what we’ve got. But what we have here is just blind cuts in [00:19:00] order to provide huge tax breaks to billionaires. That’s not benefiting the state of Iowa. That’s not helping the people of the United States

Justin Brady: The… I wanna talk about faith a little bit. It’s unusual when faith is, like, this much of a focus on a campaign. You’re a minister yourself. And So I think one of the criticisms I’m seeing, and one of the things I wanted to ask you about is, I don’t know if you call yourself a Christian minister, just a Lutheran minister. What do you, how do you c- address that, by the

Sarah Trone: For the folks at home, Lutherans are Christians. We’re actually the original Protestants.

Justin Brady: it’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying, how do you say it.

Sarah Trone: say it. Um- You know, um, here in Iowa, Lutheran, a lot of… There’s a lot of Lutherans. So folks, folks know what that- A lot of people

Justin Brady: There’s a lot of you out there.

Sarah Trone: There are a lot of Lutherans here in Iowa. Um, so I’m a Lutheran Christian pastor. Um, you know, and there’s a lot of ways to say that. I’m a minister. I’m a pastor. I’ve been a faith leader.

Justin Brady: I was just gonna- have a, a, a theological debate. with you, like Starting out with who- was the [00:20:00] 13th disciple. No, I’m just kidding. Totally kidding. Um, so one of the, one, of the, one of the questions that come up, I have a Bible major, by the way, so don’t, don’t tempt me, everybody.

Sarah Trone: Interesting. Was there any particular

Justin Brady: this is a whole… Uh, n- no, but- this is a whole nother focus. Um, but one of the things I- wanted to ask you about is and, uh, the church, Christians, ministers. do interpret scripture differently. Some of the focus has been, uh, with you on, like, how do you… hold a Christian faith And then also have your stance on pro-abortion? You talked about satanic weddings, and then, you know, the– qu- I can, I can go over the quote if we want. There was, like, a moment where you, like, watched a satanic wedding or something, and you were inspired by it or

Sarah Trone: yeah, you know, let’s, let’s, let’s clarify some things here- Yeah … ’cause you’re- Go for it … repeating some things that have been fact-checked as false.

Justin Brady: you’re here. Go for it, Yeah,

Sarah Trone: yeah. Yeah. and I think it’s really important that we’re clear on, you know, who I am. My faith calls me to love my neighbor. I- that’s a pretty clear [00:21:00] calling in the scriptures. For Christians, Jesus says there are two commandments that are the most important, love God and love your neighbor. And then in the Gospel of Luke, when he shares this, someone of course has to ask, “Well, who’s my neighbor?” ‘Cause people often wanna f- where can I draw the line and, and not have to go any further than that. And so he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, and that is a parable about how everyone is your neighbor, especially that person who needs help. So helping my neighbor is my calling. It’s my life’s calling. I was a hospital chaplain. I was a parish pastor. I work for a food pantry network. And being in the State Senate and running for Congress, that’s an extension of that calling. It’s about helping my neighbors in an even bigger way, ’cause in every calling I’ve had, I could see how policy at the state and federal level was impacting my neighbors, and often it was making it harder for us to do that work. And I really [00:22:00] wanted to help my elected leaders understand what was going on in people’s lives so they could make better decisions, but as I was visiting with them, I came to realize they weren’t listening to me, and they weren’t listening to my neighbors. And I realized I needed to step up in a different way. And so all of my positions are about what really works, what really helps people. When we wanna talk about controversial issues like abortion care- Yeah … we need to have physicians and patients making those very intimate, personal, difficult decisions, not politicians. I was at the state capitol the first time my state here tried to ban abortion at six weeks, and I saw my state

Justin Brady: And do you disagree with that, by the way?

Sarah Trone: Yes, and I’ll tell you why. I saw my state senator across the rotunda and ran over to him [00:23:00] and said, “What would happen to a woman with an ectopic pregnancy if this bill passes?” And he looked at me and said, “What’s that?” He didn’t know about one of the most common complications that happens in pregnancy that is life-threatening, that requires abortion care. If you do not understand the issues, if you haven’t spent the time learning, then there is no way you should be telling people when and how they can get healthcare. And that was the thing that pushed me to run, because I think it’s really important that when we’re making it- you know, decisions about really challenging, tricky issues that are controversial, that people have great passion about, that we really are doing the work, and he wasn’t, and that was wrong

Justin Brady: So would you support something that says, “Okay, um, six weeks is fine, w- except it has to cover heptoc- heptopic pres- pregnancies,” blah, blah, blah. It’s a tongue twister

Sarah Trone: What we see right now with our state’s abortion ban is that hospital [00:24:00] systems are terrified, and so lawyers are making the decisions, not doctors, and that’s wrong. Physicians should be making the determinations, but the way that the law is written, it doesn’t use accurate medical terminology. It doesn’t actually work in the real world. And so you’re having situations where people who are in the process of miscarrying are not getting the care they need in time, and it’s putting their lives at risk because hospital systems and providers are so worried about being targeted and get in trouble with this law that they’re not acting, and they’re not providing the care that people need. Every circumstance, every situation is different, and that’s why I think it’s incredibly important that when you’re talking about life and death healthcare situations, that it is the physicians and the patients who are at the heart of that, and not politicians.

Justin Brady: Is there a point where [00:25:00] you as a legislator in Congress would say, From my Christian faith, uh, I do feel comfortable putting…” Because, uh, there is a point where a life becomes a life and we’re taking a life, right? There is a point. The, the s- the spectrum is heavily debated, but from your perspective, is there a point where you’re like, “After this point, I think abortion is murder, and before this point, I think abortion is not murder”? Is there a point on that spectrum where you’re fairly certain from your Christian faith?

Sarah Trone: When you talk to physicians and you ask them that question, if somebody is seeking an abortion later in their pregnancy, it’s because something has gone terribly wrong, and it is a health emergency. People do not choose. And, and it’s– I, I wanna give patients the respect to, you know, work with their physicians to decide what is the [00:26:00] best care for them in challenging circumstances. And that’s what’s so hard about the law is when we’re trying to legislate based on political perspectives what’s going on in the exam room, we end up creating these situations where real harm can come

Justin Brady: I wanna also talk about SF 538. This is one of the other things, um, again, because you’re a minister, This is one of the things- that goes back and forth a lot

Sarah Trone: What– Can you tell me what SF 538 is? Oh, of course. Yeah. And this is,

Justin Brady: course. Yeah. And this is, by the way- all the numbers, this

Sarah Trone: They change the bill numbers every year,

Justin Brady: not unreasonable. so for any– Really quickly, for anybody who’s like, “I can’t believe she doesn’t…” Dude, it’s a bunch of letters and numbers. This is a, a very good question. Uh, so this is voting against gender-affirming care for those under 18. So this would be puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. Um, you voted against that, a ban– uh, something that would ban that kind of stuff for people for under 18. So from a Christian [00:27:00] perspective, why would you vote against something like that?

Sarah Trone: You know, I really think in terms of healthcare decisions that you need to center parents and, and physicians, and that’s taking away a parent’s voice in this process and saying politicians know better for all people under 18. You know, I was a hospital chaplain. There’s a lot of circumstances and situations that are pretty complicated, and when legislators are trying to play doctor, we can create some real harm and some real problems. And I wanna make sure that parents have a voice in all these processes. I don’t wanna take away their voices, but that’s what that legislation does

Justin Brady: Would there be any point then that the state or the government or, uh, lawmakers should intervene then when they want to either transition their kids or give them puberty, puberty blockers? Is there a point if they’re under 18, [00:28:00] um, I’m kind of in the camp just personally, like you’re over 18, you can do whatever the heck you want. No one should be able to oppose anything. You know, there’s limits there. But is there a point where lawmakers should protect minors from their own parents if they make certain transitions or surgeries or puberty, puberty blocker? What point should lawmakers step in in there?

Sarah Trone: You know, the state has a role if a parent is being abusive. Um, we certainly have a role in making sure that physicians are following best m- pr- medical practice and prevailing guidelines for our state and for our country. I think that’s really important. It’s when lawmakers decide they know better than parents, they know better than medical associations, they know better than physicians, because a lot of those lawmakers, they’re not physicians, and they’re not the experts on those issues, and they’re not the parent. And, and so I think we just need to be a lot more thoughtful about [00:29:00] those topics. You know, there’s, there’s a lot that the legislative process addresses when it comes to our health and our wellbeing, our safety. Um, there’s a lot that Iowa lawmakers have been completely ignoring and not getting to work on, like our water quality issue, like our budget crisis. We have a huge budget deficit, so, um, I, I sometimes wonder why the attention goes in certain directions. We wanna make sure that we’re protecting kids, and there are kids who are dying in the state’s care, and we did not have the oversight committees that were supposed to happen, and Republican lawmakers will not respond as to why those committees haven’t met even though they were court-ordered. You know, so there’s a lot of opportunities to protect kids that we’re not pursuing, things that we’ve been court-ordered to do that are not [00:30:00] happening. Um, and so, you know, those are also really important talk- topics to talk about. Uh,

Justin Brady: final question. which I, For every candidate here I have dozens of questions I never get to, but you’ve been critical of

Sarah Trone: S8 does

Justin Brady: You actually, to your credit, came into our older studio and, uh, had a, Like a friendly discussion with, uh, Senator Lynn…

Sarah Trone: Oh yeah, Lynn Evans

Justin Brady: you. Lynn Evans You guys both had a discussion on this topic, so this is not a new topic. But you have talked about in Congress funding the Department of Education and making sure it has… Some people are like, “The Department of Education’s been a disaster. Our schools across the country are failing. Do we overhaul it or do we fund it, or is it a little bit of both, and what would you change there if you were gonna

Sarah Trone: Yeah. Yes is the answer to my question. Um, you know, so we need to have-

Justin Brady: yes on? overhaul it or?

Sarah Trone: You’re ask- Uh, yeah.

Justin Brady: It was a lot of questions

Sarah Trone: There’s a lot of questions. And when I was in seminary, we’d ask these, “Is it this or is it this?” And my professors would always say yes. [00:31:00] Um, yes. All- So yes to the overall. All

Justin Brady: it. Overhauling. Cool. What would we change?

Sarah Trone: we we, need to make sure that we have a federal agency that’s making sure that no matter where you live in the country, rights are being protected, laws are being followed, and every kid has a great opportunity for education. But education has so much state-by-state variability that w- we have some issues there. We need to make sure kids with disabilities are getting the services that they’re entitled to by the law. We need to make sure that all children are getting a great education and that funding is being distributed in some kind of equitable way so that it’s not just certain kids that are getting a real leg up and other kids are getting left behind. And that’s the role of the Department of Education. Of course, we can always work on making sure that the department does its job better, but we, we need to have that oversight because state by state [00:32:00] it can vary greatly.

Justin Brady: If, if state by state it can vary greatly, what’s the point of the oversight then? Like, why not just say, “Hey states, work on your education, compete against each other. You wanna win people, and the federal government’s gonna have nothing to do with it.”

Sarah Trone: Yeah, it, you know, unfortunately it hasn’t worked that way and we have a long history of states not serving all people equally. And you just need to look at the Civil Rights Era to see that some kids were getting the resources and others were not. And so it is an important part of our federal responsibility to make sure no matter where you live, kids are getting a great education. We need to ensure that kids with special needs, with disabilities are getting the services that they are entitled to, that their rights are being protected, ’cause those are expensive services to provide. And, you know, states, they struggle with that. And so we do need to have support from the feds, not just the [00:33:00] oversight, but also the support and the guidance and the resources to do it well. Iowa has a really strong history of education. Sometimes we forget that other states aren’t coming from the same history as we do, um, and maybe haven’t prioris- prioritized education in the way we have. And so I think it’s important to try to be fair. I mean, you know, people don’t up and move, um, from state to state. There’s a lot of reasons why you live where you live and, you know, so it’s not a matter of shopping around. However, I know that a lot of people do choose their neighborhoods based on where they can get a quality education experience and make sure they can provide a good future for their kids. We need to do that everywhere, no matter where

Justin Brady: Se- Senator Sarah Trone Garriott, of course, running for Congress in Iowa 3. Thank you so much for coming back on the Iowa Podcast. I really appreciate the opportunity to dig into this stuff. What’s the website? How do people reach out to [00:34:00] you if they’re interested and want to learn more?

Sarah Trone: If folks wanna learn more about me, um, check me out on social media at Sarah for Iowa and visit my website sarahforiowa.com, S-A-R-A-H-F-O-R-I-O-W-A

Justin Brady: Sarah, thank you so much for coming in here

Sarah Trone: Thank you so much