WVIK is including our entire conversation with Representative Croken for voters.
A transcript of WVIK's interview was edited for clarity.
WVIK: All right, nice having you here, Representative Croken, if I could have your full name for the audio file?
Rep. Croken: Sure. It's Ken Croken, C-R-O-K-E-N, often misspelled, and I am the representative for Iowa House District 97, which is most of eastern and central Davenport.
WVIK: And this is your first term as a representative in the House, right?
Rep. Croken: I'm running for my second term, yes.
WVIK: Okay. And what would you say to voters who are wondering if they should vote for you or the Republican this November? What legislative successes would you like to tout to residents or bills that you think made their lives better?
Rep. Croken: Sure. To the voters, I would say shared values. If... If we agree on basic principles, I'm your guy. If we don't, then I can't help you. (laughs)
WVIK: Could you share a couple of principles?
Rep. Croken: Sure. My legislative priorities are, at this point, largely about restoration. We need to restore the basic human right to all women of bodily autonomy. We need to restore Iowa schools to quality public education...equal access to all students. We need to restore the civil rights of many of our minority communities, including the African American and Hispanic communities. And under unique special attack these days...our LGBTQ neighbors and friends.
WVIK: Thank you so much. With the school vouchers and abortion care in the state of Iowa since two of the previous bills with the six-week ban in effect and having the private school voucher system - have any Republicans in the chambers that you share with wanted to go back in and change any of the legislation since it's been enacted? As voters, they seem to be pretty against the abortion ban and they're not fully understanding of the school voucher system how that's going to affect them. Has there been any talk of changing these laws in the next session?
Rep. Croken: Well there certainly is talk I haven't heard much of it from the other side quite frankly but I believe that that will change. Let's focus on school vouchers for a moment. At this point we are aware that that program is $55 million over budget that we know of at this point and we're only in year two. So more students would be eligible to claim those state vouchers in upcoming years and as that dollar amount skyrockets it literally could threaten the financial well-being of the state. This is irresponsible and I'm not convinced that it's solving a real problem. Seventy-five percent nationwide I don't know the number for Iowa yet, but seventy-five percent of students claiming vouchers in other states are already in private schools, so these families have determined a way of affording these schools already and I don't know why we are providing additional funds particularly when many private schools including many in Iowa have increased their tuition as as a result of the availability. The school voucher program was passed by the GOP majority under the claim of increasing choice. Well the choice has not gone to Iowa families, the choice has gone to private schools. Private schools are not required to accept students with learning disabilities or the financial ability to afford a uniform. Private schools are at liberty to accept or reject any student they choose, and that is going to create, over time, a two-tiered education system. Those students who have the opportunity to go to a private school and those students who don't. And, I think that's inherently unfair, and it matters. It truly matters. I believe American democracy, one of the foundations of American democracy, is universal, quality, public education for all children, and we've got to have that.
Rep Croken: Turning to the abortion question. I think that... Again, it's not really about the abortion itself. It's about government control over women's bodies. That's a human right we have to control our own bodies, and I am deeply troubled by this overreach of governmental authority into... one of the most private and intimate decisions. Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Waltz said, mind your own damn business, and I'm with him on that. People need to make those kinds of intensely personal decisions with the input of their spiritual advisors and their partners and their family. They don't need me in Des Moines telling them what they ought to do.
WVIK: And to kind of to jump back to school vouchers quickly, you held a forum this past Saturday. Did any families participate who have children within private schools or was it all kind of public school families or just residents of all creeds?
Rep. Croken: My sense was they were public school families. I didn't demand to know where their children were attending school currently, but we did have a very big crowd which indicated to me that this is a topic of great concern, great and widespread concern. That meeting and meetings before it and upcoming meetings are all about my personal legislative priorities. I, what I do is I combine public meetings on topics that I suspect are a concern and then I have individual meetings with some of my institutional constituents, so for example I'll be meeting with the government relations representative from St. Ambrose later today (Oct. 7th). I had a meeting with Iowa American Water last week. So there'll be a number of institutions or institutional providers that I'll be talking to. The community forums will continue. I'm deeply concerned about the skyrocketing cases of cancer in Iowa. Today we rank number two in the nation for the incidence of cancer, particularly hormonal cancers, breast, thyroid, testicular, all of which have some suspected connection to runoff into our water. The growing precedence of PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals. I think we all need to learn more about that and explore what connection there is between these two. So there'll be lots of topics like that coming up.
WVIK: Yeah. I know agricultural runoff is a big issue. It's a big issue for the state, especially with the nutrients going into the Mississippi and creating a dead zone in the Gulf.
Rep. Croken: Exactly. I, for example, had the opportunity to take advantage of county and city programs to put a water-permeable driveway in so that the water didn't run off from my home into the Mississippi. And maybe we need to look at that as a kind of a model program and start thinking more about that. We also have way more discharge from our animal CAFOs, the confinement, more pigs than ground to spread the manure on. So we heavily disperse that over the ground. The PFAS, I'm told, are actually present in the fertilizer that we are using. And there are a number of examples from the European Union that we might look at. They're restricting the forever chemicals much more aggressively than we are in this country. And I think we need to start looking around for alternatives to just pretending things aren't happening that are happening. The global warming. One of the bills I'm hoping to get some attention to this upcoming session is, well, there's a whole host of worker safety issues that I'm on. But folks working outdoors, we need to ensure they have access to water and shade and other such things. I think this was the warmest summer on record. Yeah. and you know, you drive down the street and watch these men and women working on road construction and you wonder how the heck they can do it, you know? So in any event, worker safety and last year I led our Democratic caucus in supplying legislation, proposed legislation that would raise the minimum wage. Iowa today offers a minimum wage that's just slightly less than half of what our neighbors in Illinois make. The minimum wage hasn't been raised in 20 years. That can't go on. You know, we've got to address the issue of fair wages.
WVIK: Because I know with inflation and the cost of living, any wage increase that some people are seeing, it's not accounting for their bills.
Rep. Croken: And the housing shortage is, you know, driving the cost of housing through the roof. No pun intended. Yeah.
WVIK: What is, do you have voters contacting you? Is there like a topic that's front of mind for them that you constantly get questions asked about?
Rep. Croken: Well, I do think reproductive freedom is something I hear a great deal about. And the school vouchers. There's a great deal of also concern for the legalization of cannabis in Iowa, especially here in eastern Iowa, where so many eastern Iowans have to drive across a bridge to come to Illinois to purchase these products. That's dangerous. That's... Again, fiscal... There's a fiscal component to all this too that we ought to recognize and address.
WVIK: As in Iowans could be receiving those tax dollars?
Rep. Croken: Sure. The tax dollars. Absolutely. Yeah. The failure of Democrats and Republicans to collaborate better is the focus on cultural war issues rather than real bread and butter kitchen table kind of issues that people are really concerned about with education being one. So many members of the Iowa General Assembly are very concerned about what reading material young people have access to but not nearly concerned about their ability to read at all. I would like us to change that focus.
WVIK: And at this point, is there anything I may not have asked about any of your previous voting records on bills in the Iowa legislature or events with the community?
Rep. Croken: Well, my voting record is public. People who have specific concerns are always welcome to call me. They can reach me through Facebook or on my website, which is RepKenCroken.org, or call me 563-940-8439. You can also go to the state legislative website and you can find every vote I've cast.
WVIK: All right. And at this point, I think that's all the questions I have for you today, Representative Croken.
Rep. Croken: Well, thank you, Brady. It was a pleasure chatting with you.
WVIK: Pleasure to have you here.
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