Lahn’s stolen handgun
During the campaign, Lahn said he supported changes to Iowa statute so permit holders could carry firearms on school property. The GOP nominee embraced proposals to limit the ability of Iowa employers to forbid employees from storing guns in vehicles on workplace property. He endorsed the concept of “constitutional” possession of weapons, which would shrink a state’s capacity to regulate firearms.
He said in an interview with the Iowa Firearms Coalition that action must be taken so schools weren’t targeted.
“When we put young, vulnerable children in these situations where they have no defense, we are setting things up for bad people to take advantage. And we need to have people there that are ready to protect our kids,” Lahn said.
Amid Lahn’s advocacy for the constitutional right to bear arms and legislation allowing people to possess firearms at schools, he didn’t address a Wichita Police Department report in September 2023 that shows his $8,000 Ithaca Colt 1911 handgun, two .45-caliber magazines and a Ford Excursion were stolen from Wonder school.
The firearm and bullets were recovered and released to the owner, said Andrew Ford, spokesman for the Wichita Police Department.
Lahn’s campaign declined written and verbal requests to explain circumstances that allowed the weapon to be left on school property in a location where it could be stolen.
Kansas Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, a Lenexa Democrat who previously led Kansas’ chapter of the public safety organization Moms Demand Action, said it was puzzling that an educator would leave a firearm in a vulnerable location on school property. Hoye, a gun owner, opposes legislation to arm teachers or allow guns in classrooms.
“As far as someone getting one stolen from school, that is wild,” Hoye said. “Why wasn’t it locked up? At the least, you’ve got to secure it.”
Iowa Rep. Elinor Levin, an Iowa City Democrat on the House Public Safety Committee and a former middle school teacher, said an apolitical, unemotional assessment of the issue should lead people to realize firearms in schools elevated the threat of accidental discharges, as well as the risk of theft.
“Kids in school and people in schools are less safe when guns are around,” Levin said.
Iowa Republican nominee for governor Zach Lahn, who moved to Wichita, Kansas, to assist with opening a private school, speaks with reporters Aug. 14, 2026, at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. Lahn is challenging Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand to determine who replaces GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds, who isn’t seeking reelection. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Conflict of interest
The 39 students who inaugurated Wonder school on Sept. 4, 2018, were promised an immersive experience. They would be exposed to Socratic discussions and self-paced studies. They’d join a small community of learners. Older students would mentor younger students.
“Education can and should be something different,” Lahn
told the Wichita Eagle at the time. “We’re preparing them for when they leave school to be successful in the world.”
Students with ADHD, dyslexia and minor forms of autism could thrive at Wonder, but the school wouldn’t be equipped to serve students with other special education needs.
Lahn was brought in by Chase and Annie Koch to lead Wonder, which initially was on the campus of Wichita State University. The family of Charles Koch, which controls the second-largest private company in the United States, has longstanding academic, athletic and philanthropic ties to WSU. Objections were raised by some at WSU about placement of the private school on a public university campus.
Kansas lacks a comprehensive state-funded voucher program for private K-12 schools comparable to the $8,200 per-student Educational Savings Account grant available in Iowa for students enrolled in state-accredited private schools. Instead, Kansas provides a modest amount of tax credits to people willing to finance scholarships for private school students.
Lahn has expressed dissatisfaction that Wonder, organized on a multi-age studio model similar to a microschool, wouldn’t qualify for ESA funding in Iowa if it didn’t earn state accreditation.
The Montessori-style school in Wichita, which has never sought accreditation from the Kansas State Department of Education, received $1.6 million in grants and contributions before its doors opened in 2018. That was followed by donations of $1.3 million in 2018-2019. Revenue from student tuition in that two-year period totaled $284,000. Without cash from benefactors, the school wouldn’t have covered expenses of $2.6 million in those formative years.
The financial status of Wonder began to wobble in 2020 amid Annie Koch’s divorce from Chase Koch and Lahn’s divorce from his spouse. Eleven days after paperwork terminating those marriages was finalized, Lahn and Annie Koch applied for their marriage license in Montana. These co-founders of Wonder continued in positions of authority at the Wichita school.
According to
IRS 990s filed by Wonder since it was founded, contributions to the school slumped to $640,000 in 2019-2020 and to $3,500 in 2020-2021. Donations rebounded to $186,000 in 2021-2022, but cratered to zero in 2022-2023. The school reported donations of $11,900 in 2023-2024 and $1,900 in 2024-2025.
Wonder benefitted from $170,000 in COVID-19 relief loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration tied to the Paycheck Protection Loan program. The pandemic loans in 2020 and 2021 were forgiven by the federal government. In 2020, SBA provided Wonder a separate $150,000 disaster loan. The SBA took a security interest in Wonder Inc.’s property, which was extended in 2025 for five years.
Zach and Annie Lahn, the only publicly disclosed members of Wonder’s board of trustees, responded to the school’s financial distress with loans of $615,000. Subsequently, the school moved into its own off-campus building in Wichita valued at approximately $3.8 million. The school’s debt to the Lahns surged to $4.5 million, IRS records show. It wasn’t clear from public records whether Wonder school had taken steps to repay the Lahns.
The Lahns’ financial intervention triggered, every year since 2021, formal disclosures to the IRS of conflict-of-interest-transactions. The nonprofit’s filings were necessary because the Lahns were not only administrative officers at Wonder but the school’s largest creditor. While Zach Lahn served as board president and treasurer, Annie Lahn was board secretary and a trustee. The structure is contrary to IRS recommendations that nonprofit boards avoid domination by employees or others who lacked independence due to family or business ties.
Lahn said that if elected governor he would be a champion of the Iowa public schools serving 470,000 students. He vowed to work on making the state’s public schools competitive with private schools. He spoke of superintendents, principals and teachers embracing classroom innovation in the manner of Wonder.
He told the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition his commitment to public funding of Educational Savings Accounts was unshakable. The way to sustain private schools was to rely on state resources to enroll as many students as possible, he said.
“As an educator who’s spent years building a foundation for children, I believe that school choice is a foundational freedom,” Lahn wrote in a column
published in August by the Times-Republican in Marshalltown, Iowa. “Our goal as Iowans should always be to promote excellence in education, whether that’s at a public school or a private school.”
www.forbes.com
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