Thank you, Trumpublicans When Black men in droves begin arming themselves with tricked-out AR-15s and roaming the streets in body armor, the Second Amendment crowd will suddenly have second thoughts about their guns-everywhere philosophy. It’s somewhat less costly to challenge efforts to privatize public education that divert tax dollars to religious schools and profit-adjacent charters. But the approach is not dissimilar. “Little Devils Academy,” anyone? The setting is the Iowa General Assembly. Iowa Starting Line: Iowans got a chance to comment on Gov. Kim Reynolds’ latest bill to fund private school tuition with public tax dollars during a Tuesday public hearing held by the Iowa House Education Reform Committee. House Republicans have fast-tracked the proposal so it skips several steps that bills normally go to before they reach the House floor for debate, including financial vetting through the Appropriations and Ways and Means committees. According to estimates Reynolds’ staff provided to other media outlets, the plan would cost $341 million annually once it is fully phased in. The new plan would eventually allow any Iowa student to receive $7,598 annually from the state to pay for private school tuition and other related expenses, but a twist is that public schools would receive $1,205 per pupil in categorical funding, which would remain with the district whether or not the child attends a public or private school and this would even include current private school students. West Des Moines School Board Member Fannette Elliott spoke out against the bill. She noted that private schools, unlike public…