Auditor of State Rob Sand speaks at a press conference on Jan. 30, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Auditor of State’s Office)
Three Republican Iowa state senators called on state Auditor Rob Sand, a Democratic candidate for governor, to perform an audit of Des Moines Public Schools in the wake of the arrest of former Superintendent Ian Roberts. Sand replied Thursday that he does not have the authority to perform an audit without the district’s request.
Sens. Jesse Green, R-Boone, Kerry Gruenhagen, R-Walcott and Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, sent a letter to Sand Wednesday calling for the state auditor to investigate the spending and practices of DMPS following the Sept. 26 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of Roberts.
Since the arrest, multiple reports have found that Roberts, a citizen of Guyana according to court documents, had falsified parts of his credentials and resume in addition to not disclosing his immigration status or previous criminal charges. Roberts had been given an order of removal by an immigration judge in May 2024.
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The letter from the three GOP senators said they were “becoming more and more alarmed” by reports of false information disseminated by Roberts about his background, and called for Sand to “take the time to do the job and help both lawmakers and Iowans as we continue to deal with the consequences of Roberts’ deceptions.”
“As senators with duties to pass budgets, implement policy, and hold government accountable, our job includes evaluating the process of retaining individuals to lead public schools and the accountability required to ensure the almost $4 billion of taxpayer funds are managed by people Iowans can trust,” the letter stated.
In a statement responding to the letter, Sand said he agrees with the “descriptions of Ian Roberts’ deceptions and agree that DMPS needs to be more transparent around what happened here.” But he said lawmakers should know the auditor’s office does not have the authority to conduct an audit of DMPS outside of a request for reaudit from a DMPS employee or school board official.
The GOP senators also brought up Sand’s efforts to audit the state’s Education Savings Account program providing public funds for private school tuition and associated costs in the letter. While the ESA program is expected to cost the state roughly $314 million, DMPS, which employed Roberts, received $460 million in fiscal year 2025, according to the release.
“You, as the state’s auditor, who claims to be the taxpayer watchdog while politicizing your office and spending more time campaigning for governor than actually focusing on your job, have a duty to that office and to Iowans to focus more of your time on your current job than trying to get the next one,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Iowa needs the state auditor to take the time to do the job and help both lawmakers and Iowans as we continue to deal with the consequences of Roberts’ deceptions.”
Sand responded that the senators “supported the vouchers law they chose to bring into this, which provides for no audits whatsoever of private schools spending public money, despite the fact that every public school district, including DMPS, is audited every year.”
The auditor’s office released an independent report in February about the ESA program and Odyssey, the company the state contracts with to administer the program, which stated the Iowa departments of Education and Revenue did not provide their office requested documents about whether students receiving ESA funds met the income eligibility requirements. Gov. Kim Reynolds and state department leaders responded by saying the office had not followed the correct procedures for obtaining this information, and that Sand was launching a political attack against the ESA program.
Sand also criticized Republicans, who hold a trifecta of control at the Iowa Statehouse, for passing legislation he said could allow officials to legally hide documents during an audit.
“They all have my number,” Sand said in a statement. “Had they just called me, I could have saved them the embarrassment of the public learning these lawmakers don’t know, or don’t care about, the law. I will still take their calls to save them further embarrassment.”
On Wednesday, Reynolds signed an executive order requiring state government departments use the federal E-Verify and SAVE systems to confirm immigration and citizenship status when granting occupational and professional licenses and confirming state employees’ work eligibility. The Des Moines School Board is also pursuing a lawsuit against JG Consulting, the firm contracted during the search to hire Roberts, for not disclosing information on his immigration, criminal and educational background that should have been flagged during the background check process.
