Rural Iowa is Gambling on Education
by John Drury
While campaigning across Senate District 6 this past year, I had many discussions about rural economic development. Iowa’s Senate District 6 includes Worth, Winnebago, Hancock, Franklin, and Cerro Gordo County, excluding Mason City. It’s a rural district with Clear Lake being its largest city.
Another topic often discussed was public education. Iowa is known for its great education system. For years, that has been the case. Iowa has consistently been at the top when it comes to education. In fact, we have beaten the odds, Iowa’s personal income level is way below average and typically income level relates to test scores. However, in Iowa, we have low wages, but our test scores have been high. We have beaten those odds because we have properly funded our education system, and because of our commitment to strong rural communities.
The Iowa quarter was released this year and on the back it says “Foundation in Education.” Ironically, in a recent survey sent to 2,300 Iowa K-12 teachers, a whopping 75% said their class sizes have increased, only 24% said their materials are up to date and accurate, 62% spent more than $200 a year of their own money on classroom supplies, and 59% report that professional development resources at their schools were cut.
It would appear as though our strong foundation is crumbling. I talked to parents, teachers, school administrators, and students across district 6 who were all concerned that the Iowa legislature is shortchanging our education system.
There is a common theme of my conversations on economic development. People can’t seem to figure out why we don’t seem to get much development north of Highway 20. Our population is on the decline and many have suggested that this is purposefully being legislated. The legislature has said no to any real local control on large-scale hog confinements, they have not promoted the family farmer, they refuse to discuss raising the minimum wage, and they have no strategy for economic development. All of these have worked against any real growth in our area. Mason City likes to boast about its retail expansion west. Sure, you can get a cheap TV, but does that bring good paying jobs and attract people to live in our communities? It’s doubtful.
Both Worth County and Franklin County have each approved a referendum in support of bringing casino gambling to their county. The opponents of gambling are rightfully concerned about the social ills and the effect that a casino will have on already existing and struggling businesses. Any disposable income will be sucked into the casino and main street businesses will dry up and blow away, they say. The executive director of the Worth County Development Authority has said we need a casino to fund our schools. Proponents argue that the state has left them with nothing else to spark growth and create jobs.
The sad truth is, they are both right. The social ills of gambling are real and the potential effects of casinos on struggling businesses shouldn’t be ignored. And the legislature has obviously decided that we are no longer going to properly fund our schools and that as long as we put the right words on the back of a quarter, that ought to be good enough.
We are in pretty sad shape when we are willing to gamble on our families and struggling main streets just to fund a basic service like education.
I’ve said all along that if Iowa is going to have casino gambling, there’s no reason why north Iowa shouldn’t have one. But I am concerned that north Iowa is looking to a casino to solve all of our problems. If we are to have a casino, then it should be because there is a demand for recreation, not because we want our children to have the latest textbooks.
We need real solutions to economic development that celebrate Iowa and its people and ones that will grow our economy and our communities from the ground up. For the state legislature to not have a long term strategy to grow rural areas of the state is unacceptable. Our future should be an investment, not a risk.