A panel of Iowa Senate lawmakers advanced a bill that would require regent universities to add two mandatory courses focused on American history and civic education.
Several education leaders and lawmakers raised concerns over Senate File 2033 Tuesday, and supporters said the proposal would promote intellectual diversity on campus.
Critics of the legislation, including Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, argued the bill would impose costly and impractical requirements on Iowa’s public universities while overstepping legislative authority.
Critics warned mandating additional required courses could strain university resources, complicate credit transfers, and reduce flexibility for students’ academic programs.
The bill also directs the creation of courses for the Center for Intellectual Freedom, which would be tasked with supporting free expression initiatives and reviewing compliance with the new requirements across the state’s universities.
The Iowa Board of Regents approved the center’s bylaws in December 2025, which endorsed guidelines on staffing, governance, and the mission of the Center for Intellectual Freedom. The approval followed revisions by its advisory council and fulfilled requirements of the law that created the center to expand intellectual diversity and teach historical ideas on campus.
Iowa Sens. Kerry Gruenhagen, R-Walcott Gruenhagen and Sen. Mike Pike, R-Des Moines, did not voice their opinions while Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, the only Democrat in the subcommittee, opposed the bill, raising concerns for the cost of the program across universities.
Quirmbach, who taught at Iowa State University for 29 years, said adding two required courses to large universities is not tangible as additional resources would need to be added.
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“The topics are clearly very important. Nobody questions that,” he said. “But if you have 13,200 butts in the seats at 200 students per section, that means you have to populate and schedule 66 sections of these two classes.”
Quirmbach also said adding these courses would require new faculty members along with teaching assistants to accommodate the needs of the courses, which he estimated could cost upwards of nearly $6.6 million for all three regent universities.
Iowa Board of Regent Jason Chapman said the regents are registered as neutral for this bill but hold some concerns.
Chapman said when House Study Bill 543, a similar bill, was introduced to subcommittees in the House, lawmakers discussed concerns over transfer credits. He said he was confused over whether that applied to high school, international, or transfer students.
“We don’t know exactly what that means,” Chapman said. “If that means, high school, since there is a requirement for history in high school classes right now. What does that look like?”
Connie Ryan, executive director at Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, a nonpartisan, faith-based group, said the organization is registered against this legislation.
Ryan said the alliance does not think it is the role of the legislature to implement required courses and that it should be left up to the professional educators at each university.
“We believe it’s an overreach of the legislature, and this is consistent with our beliefs and all issues,” she said. “We have no problem teaching American history, no problem teaching specific engagement and education and all of those pieces, but we don’t believe in the rules of legislation.”
She said passing this bill would also take away six credit hours for students’ specific areas of study.
“It’s important for all of us to know American history, but it’s not necessarily the way to do that,” Ryan said.