Council Bluffs Democrat Josh Turek announced Monday that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Iowa in 2026.
His platform is focused on public education, healthcare, and economic policies that benefit the middle class and workers. Turek has been serving as an Iowa State Representative since 2023.
In a press release Turek said, “Instead of cutting Medicaid for thousands of Iowans, we should make it easier for people to afford healthcare and address the growing rates of cancer”.
Other candidates in the race for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat is Democrats J.D. Scholten, Nathan Sage, Zach Wahls, and Jackie Norris, and Republicans Jim Carlin, John Berman, and Joshua Smith.
The U.S. Senate seat is currently held by Republican Joni Ernst, who is running for reelection.
*The Sioux City School District is having trouble being fully staffed for special education. Therefore, the school board members in a Monday meeting denied open enrollment requests for three students who would use those services.
Superintendent Juan Cordova said special education classrooms are full across the district and that this was a difficult decision to make.
Currently, there are 46 paraprofessional positions open; and 41 of them are in special education.
Angela Bemus, Associate Superintendent, said that some of the reasons for the difficulty in hiring special education workers are wages, workload, and lack of support.
Over the past two years, the community has opened four private facilities which pay more, resulting in the loss of staff.
The amount of students who are eligible for programs such as Vocal Behavior Classrooms, Compass Academy, Foundations, and Autism Spectrum Disorder support has increased.
Bemus plans to present a proposal to the school board in their next meeting to address these staffing issues.
