Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Tim Davis, Jamey Hansen, Tim Frerking, Chris Mende and Keesia Wirt.

Iowa is putting the heat on parents delinquent in paying child support, and it’s scared these “deadbeat” moms and dads to the bottoms of their pocketbooks.

In an effort to collect an embarrassing amount of money that Iowans owe in child support payments, the state has legislature passed a law authorizing the the revocation of driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations and professional and occupational licenses of parents who are more than 90 days late on child support payments.

And the Great Iowan Smoke-out has worked.

Late last year, warnings of the possible license yank went out to 70,000 people.

It produced half of the $2 million the state hopes to collect through this effort. recently, a second wave of letters has been sent out to 22,000 non-custodial parents who missed payments in February, March and/or April.

While it is encouraging to see the state implement an effective policy to get parents to support their children, it’s rather disheartening to realize that these parents’ sudden generosity is not motivated by a love for their children, or a sense of responsibility to the well-being of a child.

They’ve finally anted up because of a less respectable impulse: to save their own behind.

The state has come up with an effective plan to collect owed money from delinquent parents; it’s a shame some parents could look out for the best interests of their children when their own interests were threatened.