Iowa House passes HF 2510 60-36, requiring K-12 social studies to teach U.S. and Western civilization history as "exceptional and praiseworthy"

The Iowa House passed House File 2510 on March 3, 2026, by a 60-36 vote. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Brooke Boden, R-Indianola, required Iowa K-12 social studies standards to cover the "exceptional and praiseworthy" histories of the United States and Western civilization, and mandated that high schoolers take a civics and Western civilization class plus a U.S. history class. The bill's language came verbatim from Civics Alliance model legislation. Rep. Monica Kurth, D-Davenport, delivered the leading Democratic opposition speech, calling the bill "highly prescriptive," "highly slanted," and drawn from outside conservative advocacy rather than Iowa educators. The bill did not advance through the Iowa Senate.