Herman Quirmbach, the incumbent state senator for District 25, aims to continue his work in the Iowa Legislature fighting for public education.
“The state is in bad shape, and the nation is in bad shape,” Quirmbach said. “Part of me just won’t let me walk away. … People who have some experience in the system need to stay and fight right now.”
Before being elected to the Iowa Senate, Quirmbach served on the Ames City Council from 1995 to 2003. His journey into politics was motivated by a need to help shape public service and policy. His grandfather instilled this guiding principle in him early in life.
“My mom … always told me, he never built Republican or Democratic highways,” Quirmbach said. “He built highways for people to use, farmers to get their product to market, people to commute to work, families to take vacations. And that’s always been kind of a guiding principle there for me.”
During his time on city council, Quirmbach helped increase city safety with a new firehouse and helped establish Ada Hayden Heritage Park.
Long before he entered politics, Quirmbach came from a family of Republicans in an average middle-class neighborhood. His experiences growing up during the civil rights era and his desire for equality shifted his affiliation to the Democratic Party. He believed the party best aligned with these values.
“The Democratic Party these days is much better committed to equal rights for everybody,” Quirmbach said. “I mean, racially, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation — all of that. So that’s really important to me.”
Most importantly for Quirmbach, he sees the Democratic Party as doing more for public education, an issue vital to him.
Bringing funds back to public education
Most of Quirmbach’s career has been dedicated to public education.
In 2006, he worked to pass the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children (SWVPP), and in 2013 helped pass the bill establishing the Teacher Leadership and Compensation System. The program provides $150 million annually to help build teacher leadership in Iowa school districts.
“I was a public school kid all the way through high school, and I think something we owe to the next generation is to make sure they have the opportunities there that are at least as good as the ones we have had,” Quirmbach said.
To improve what he sees as a lacking system, Quirmbach said the state needs to match actual per-pupil spending with inflation. Quirmbach attests that current per-pupil spending is almost $1,000 under where it should be. Special education is falling $3,000 short.
In 2026 the state passed a 2% per-pupil spending increase.
Quirmbach believes the lack of adequate funding is responsible for public schools making cuts like the recent discontinuation of a 100-year-old orchestra program at Boone Public Schools. Boone shut down the program after needing to trim $650,000 from its budget.
“Delivering in the classroom is up to the teachers and the professors,” Quirmbach said. “But you know, if we’re not paying enough to retain the highest quality talent, if we’re not funding enough to maintain quality facilities, then those teachers are not going to generate the results that we want. You know they work very hard at it, so we’ve got to support them, and we’ve got to keep tuition affordable.”
Addressing the state budget deficit
Quirmbach claims that the state, which has a $1.4 billion budget deficit for the 2027 fiscal year, has shortchanged the education system to shore up the Taxpayers Relief Fund.
The fund sits at $3.1 billion for 2026 but is estimated to fall to $2.8 billion in 2027. The legislature approved taking $917 million from the relief fund this year.
Quirmbach claims the Iowa Republican majority in the legislature is responsible for such fiscal decisions.
“Fiscal responsibility used to be a hallmark of the Republican Party. It’s not anymore.”
Quirmbach, like other critics of this decision, worries where the money will come from once the Taxpayer Relief Fund is empty.
“Now, you could try to cut the budget, balance it by cutting spending, but you’ve already bled education, and tha’’s more than half of the state budget,” he said. “Where are you going to cut? I mean, are we still going to be able to afford three state universities? Which one would you like to close?”
Iowa Amendment 1 and how it would affect Iowans
Quirmbach warns people against voting for Iowa Amendment 1.
The amendment would require a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority to pass a bill to increase the individual or corporate income tax rate or create a new income tax.
Passing this amendment will make things harder for Iowa citizens, Quirmbach claimed.
“You know, a lot of people are having to make some tough choices between child care and food and rent, so if that constitutional amendment passes, our fiscal situation gets really a lot worse,” Quirmbach said.
Quirmach, an associate professor of economics at Iowa State, describes this process as a Laffer curve.
“The only good thing about it is that the name fits,” Quirmbach said. “It’s this notion that if you cut tax, you generate enough growth that, notwithstanding the lower rates, you actually have more revenue coming. It has not worked. It did not work in Kansas in 2013. … It didn’t work in 1982 when Ronald Reagan tried it, and it absolutely did not work in Iowa.”
Quirmbach believes people should be educated on this decision and know how the amendment would change things in Iowa.
“I do want people to know that there are some tough decisions that are going to have to be made, and passing that amendment will make them orders of magnitude harder,” he said.
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