The Des Moines Register published an important and wise editorial. It shows that someone in the mainstream press is still thoughtful and wise.
It seems that Governor Terry Branstad wants to see a much healthier Iowa. So he is urging people to lead healthier lifestyles.
Funny, he didn’t blame the medical profession of Iowa. He didn’t set standards for their daily practice. He didn’t pledge to fire the bottom 5-10% of doctors.
The editorial begins:
Gov. Terry Branstad has talked repeatedly about making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation. To accomplish this, he wants residents to eat better, exercise and “take responsibility” for their lifestyles. He has not suggested Iowa doctors do a better job. There have been no proposals to pay physicians in a different way or require a minimum grade-point average for incoming medical students.
Why not? Because such proposals are obviously ridiculous. No one would lay the responsibility for the complicated task of improving the health of an entire state on the professionals working in health care.
So why is the governor fixated on teachers when it comes to the complicated task of improving education in Iowa?
The governor blames teachers for student achievement or lack thereof and has a raft of proposals on what teachers should do to shape up.
He doesn’t say that poor health is the doctors’ fault. But low test scores are the teachers’ fault.
Let’s hope that Governor Branstad sees the illogic of his views and begins to treat teachers as professionals, for all the reason laid out in Iowa’s leading newspaper.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
For the governor to see his own illogic would require that he possess the mental capacity for metacognitive abilities – which, based upon his “education proposals”, seems not to be the case.
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Won’t be done. The governor would lose his favorite scape-goat-whipping-boy-attention-diverter. And those doctors make the bucks, wouldn’t want to lose their support.
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Perhaps those galvanic skin response bracelets can be placed onto patients after they get their RX filled at the pharmacy so the data can determine if they took the medications as prescribed…….is any profession really safe from ‘reform’?
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Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has had a life in politics not a life in education.
Following his four terms as governor, Branstad went on to serve as president of Des Moines University (DMU). During his 6-year tenure, he was able to grow the university into a world-class educational facility. Its graduates offer health care in all 50 states and in nearly every Iowa county. While there, he grew enrollment, increased the endowment and integrated new buildings, programs and initiatives.
He’s again the state’s governor.
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You say there has been no proposal for minimum grade point averages for incoming medical students? I always thought it was extremely competitive to get into any medical school, so the GPA sort of took care of itself.
And actually there have been many proposals to pay physicians differently. The fee for service model does not work all that well when the patient is not the one paying for the service and the more services the physician proscribes, the higher the physician’s income.
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