Is Iowa's public school system really "in the bottom half," losing to Nebraska?

Claim made by Rob Sand · Published Sept. 30, 2026 · Last reviewed Sept. 30, 2026

In his Aug. 24, 2026 ad, Rob Sand says, “I want us to get back to having the best public schools in the country, not in the bottom half.” He adds, “We're losing to Nebraska, folks.”

Nebraska ranks above Iowa in every current ranking Iowa First Check checked directly. Whether Iowa itself is in the "bottom half" depends on which credible ranking you use — true in some, not in others.

Iowa ranked among the nation's leaders on several measures, including a No. 1 ranking in one 1992 math test. The records Iowa First Check reviewed do not establish a single overall No. 1 ranking — though not finding one doesn't prove none ever existed. Iowa's own state test scores have genuinely declined since 2019.

The ad itself states a comparison, not a cause. A separate campaign release blames “a decade of one-party control” for Iowa's standing — rankings and test scores alone can't establish that political control, rather than other factors like the pandemic, caused the decline.

Bottom line: Nebraska really does rank above Iowa in both current comparisons checked directly. Casey's education index places Iowa in the bottom half; WalletHub's school-system ranking places it above the midpoint. Historical records support Iowa's reputation as an education leader, though they don't establish a single overall No. 1 ranking. The ad's central comparison is supported, with context needed about which measure is used; the campaign release's separate claim about political blame isn't something rankings alone can prove.

See the evidence and sources

The claim: In a campaign ad released Aug. 24, 2026, Rob Sand says, "I want us to get back to having the best public schools in the country, not in the bottom half," and, "We're losing to Nebraska, folks." A campaign release accompanying the ad attributes Iowa's standing to "a decade of one-party control."

Made by: Rob Sand

Nebraska ranks above Iowa in every current ranking checked

Iowa First Check checked two current, independently published state education rankings directly.

Ranking	Iowa	Nebraska	States/jurisdictions ranked
Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book (Education domain)	27th	18th	50
WalletHub, “States With the Best & Worst School Systems,” July 20, 2026	21st	11th	51 (50 states + D.C.)

Both are current, independently published and methodologically disclosed. Casey's education index combines preschool participation, fourth-grade reading, eighth-grade math and on-time high school graduation into one score — a measure of child education outcomes, not a comprehensive assessment of every aspect of a school system. WalletHub's ranking uses a broader set of 32 measures covering academic performance, funding, safety, class size and instructor credentials. PolitiFact Iowa's Sept. 24, 2026 review separately reported that U.S. News & World Report currently ranks Iowa 26th nationally for Pre-K-12 education; Iowa First Check was not able to independently retrieve that specific subcategory rank from U.S. News's current, JavaScript-rendered rankings tool, so it is attributed to PolitiFact here rather than treated as independently confirmed. U.S. News's current site separately shows Iowa 19th in its broader “Education” category overall — a figure Iowa First Check did verify directly, but that category also includes higher education, so it measures a different thing than a public pre-K-12 schools claim and can't substitute for the Pre-K-12 figure above.

Nebraska ranks above Iowa in both of the comparisons Iowa First Check verified directly. That part of Sand's claim holds up without needing to pick a favorable ranking.

"Bottom half" is true under Casey's index, not under WalletHub's

Twenty-seventh out of 50 states, as Casey's education index has Iowa, is in the bottom half — not just near the middle. The same is true of 26th out of 50, the current U.S. News Pre-K-12 figure PolitiFact reported. Under either of those, Sand's “bottom half” claim is accurate.

But WalletHub's broader school-systems ranking puts Iowa 21st out of 51 — above the midpoint, not in the bottom half. (U.S. News's overall “Education” category, 19th out of 50, also puts Iowa above the midpoint, but since that category includes higher education, it isn't a fair comparison for a claim about public K-12 schools and is set aside here.)

Sand's ad doesn't say which ranking it means, and credible rankings that focus on K-12 schools genuinely differ — Casey's education index says bottom half, WalletHub's school-systems ranking says upper half. A claim doesn't have to hold under every conceivable ranking to be fairly called supported; it does mean a reader should know the “bottom half” finding depends on which measure is used, not that every measure agrees.

Iowa ranked among the nation's education leaders in the 1990s

An archived 2017 U.S. News Best States page shows Iowa ranked 6th nationally for Pre-K-12 education and 8th for Education overall (which includes higher education), while separately reporting Iowa's high school graduation rate as the nation's highest, at 90%. Those are three different measures, not one overall "No. 1" ranking.

The Iowa Department of Education's 2011 Area Education Agency Taskforce Final Report, hosted on the Iowa Legislature's website, documents Iowa's standing on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal test often called “the nation's report card”: Iowa ranked 1st in the nation in eighth-grade math and 2nd in fourth-grade math in 1992, and 5th in fourth-grade reading that year. By 2009, the same report shows Iowa had fallen to 19th in fourth-grade math, 28th in eighth-grade math and 27th in fourth-grade reading — a decline that was already well underway before the last decade.

A 2012 Iowa Department of Education report, “Overcoming the Achievement Divide,” describes the same trend in plain terms: Iowa had “slipped from one of the highest-performing states in the nation to the middle of the pack in student achievement,” attributing it to stagnant Iowa results while other states improved, not to a single overall ranking collapse.

Iowa ranked among the nation's leaders on several measures. The records Iowa First Check reviewed do not establish a single overall No. 1 ranking. Not finding one does not establish that none ever existed — it means this review did not find one. These records also show that concern about Iowa's declining standing goes back well before the past 10 years.

Iowa's own test scores have measurably declined since 2019

Iowa's 2024 Condition of Education report (Table 1-4) gives these average NAEP scale scores for Iowa public school students:

Assessment	2019	2024
Fourth-grade math	241	237
Eighth-grade math	282	275
Fourth-grade reading	221	215
Eighth-grade reading	262	261

Each of these scores declined from 2019 to 2024. Iowa First Check did not independently assess which of these differences are statistically significant versus within normal testing variation; the report itself does not label them. “Not Proficient” on NAEP is a specific achievement-level standard, not the same as being unable to read or necessarily below grade level — a student can be “Basic” and still read, just not at the level NAEP defines as strong, grade-appropriate mastery.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's state profile for Iowa reports that 65% of Iowa fourth-graders were not proficient in reading in 2019, rising to 71% in 2024 — figures Iowa First Check cross-checked against Iowa's own NAEP proficiency data in the Condition of Education report (65% and 71%, respectively) and found consistent. PolitiFact's Sept. 24 review cites 66% and 70% for these same two years; those appear to be the national rates in Casey's table, not Iowa's own rates, which are listed in a separate column. Readers comparing the two articles should use the Iowa-specific figures (65% and 71%).

Casey updated its KIDS COUNT index methodology in 2026, adding state-and-domain scores alongside its traditional rankings. The foundation's own documentation cautions that year-to-year rank changes can reflect other states' movement as much as a state's own change, which is one reason this review relies on Iowa's underlying NAEP scores — not just its rank — to describe the recent decline.

Rankings can't establish what the campaign release claims caused them

The ad compares Iowa's school rankings with its past standing and with Nebraska. It does not identify a cause. A campaign release accompanying the ad separately attributes the situation to "a decade of one-party control." That is a different, broader claim than anything in the ad's own words, and it is a political argument, not a data point.

Rankings and test scores can show that Iowa's relative standing has changed. They cannot, by themselves, establish why — school funding, curriculum, staffing, poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic's well-documented, nationwide disruption to student learning, and many other factors can all affect outcomes, and separating their effects requires more than a ranking. Nationwide NAEP scores fell in most states after 2019, not just Iowa's, which is relevant context the campaign release does not address. Iowa First Check did not find evidence in the reviewed material isolating one party's policies as the cause of Iowa's specific decline.

What the ad gets right — and what goes beyond the evidence

Statement	What the record supports
Sand: "We're losing to Nebraska."	Supported. Nebraska ranks above Iowa in both current rankings Iowa First Check verified directly (Casey KIDS COUNT and WalletHub).
Sand: Iowa schools are "in the bottom half."	True under Casey's education index (27th of 50) and under U.S. News's Pre-K-12 figure as reported by PolitiFact (26th of 50). Not true under WalletHub's school-systems ranking (21st of 51). The claim doesn't specify a ranking, and the credible ones that focus on K-12 schools disagree.
Implied: Iowa was once "the best" school system in the country.	Iowa ranked among the nation's leaders on specific 1990s NAEP measures (1st in 8th-grade math, 2nd in 4th-grade math, both 1992) and had strong Pre-K-12 and graduation-rate rankings as recently as 2017. The records reviewed do not establish a single overall No. 1 ranking — that doesn't mean one never existed, only that this review didn't find one.
Campaign release: a "decade of one-party control" caused the decline.	Not established. Rankings and test scores show a real decline, which predates the last decade by this evidence. They do not isolate political control as the cause, and do not account for the pandemic's nationwide effect on test scores.

Rating rationale

Mostly supported · 3 of 4 kernels. Nebraska ranks above Iowa in both current comparisons we checked directly. Casey's education index places Iowa in the bottom half, while WalletHub's school-system ranking places it above the midpoint. Historical records also support Iowa's reputation as an education leader, although they do not establish a single overall No. 1 ranking. The ad's central comparison is supported, with context needed about the measures used.

The accompanying campaign release assigns political responsibility for the decline. These rankings and test scores alone do not establish that explanation.

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