The chair of the Iowa House Higher Education Committee said there is a lack of trust in higher education.
Representative Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, said he wants to restore confidence in colleges and universities.
Collins said that starts with eliminating DEI and what he called the political distractions on campuses.
“To me, DEI means division, exclusion, and indoctrination. We are done with identity politics after this last election. I think that was one thing Americans resoundingly said,” he said.
Collins said state lawmakers are looking to create a Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa. He said it will focus on teaching about history and basic civics, and work to increase the intellectual diversity on campus.
He said all history should be included in what is taught.
“We gotta make sure we include the bad, the good, and the ugly,” he said.
He believes “the left” has controlled the education system for a long time and has not properly taught history in K-12 schools.
“Many of the standards we’ve identified as we’ve reviewed our K-12 education standards, is we just skip over many of the horrors of communism, socialism, and act as if they don’t exist,” Collins said.
He said millions of people died as a result of communism, and that socialism makes people poorer.
“I think some of the things you’re seeing right now with the Trump administration, we’re trying to get back to a capitalistic society, making sure that we’re not having so many public goodies out there,” he said.
A Macomb native
Collins grew up in Macomb, graduating from high school in 2015. He then attended Iowa State University. He’s always been interested in politics, and got involved with the College Republicans at ISU.
He helped with Kim Reynolds’ campaign for governor in 2018, then joined her office for a couple years.
After that, he moved to southeast Iowa, where his mother’s side of the family lives.
Collins got back into politics when State Representative David Kerr retired.
Collins is now in his second term representing Iowa House District 95, which includes all or portions of Des Moines, Henry, Louisa, and Muscatine counties. He said it’s the largest House district in Iowa.
In addition to chairing the House higher education committee, he serves on the appropriations, government oversight, natural resources, and state government committees.
He said Republicans have held the governor’s office plus the House and Senate since 2017.
“We have accomplished so much. We have went from one of the highest income tax states in the country to one of the lowest,” Collins said. “I’ve also been able to work on property taxes and making sure we’re keeping those under control."
He said many companies are relocating to Iowa, but when pressed to name a couple, he instead talked about overregulation stifling farmers and businesses.
Collins criticized education and economic policies in Illinois. He said Iowa has $3 billion in its taxpayer relief fund, while Illinois is grappling with a projected $3 billion budget deficit.
Collins was in Macomb over the weekend to deliver the keynote speech at the McDonough County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.
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