Dengler

A public school district is the most important part of a rural community. It is the cultural, educational, and job center of the town and surrounding towns. A decent chance exists for it to be the highest employer in town and the surrounding communities. They are a vital fabric for the community. When a town loses its high school, middle school, or elementary school, it loses a point of pride, and it hurts. Without a local school, it is harder to recruit new businesses from restaurants to daycare to gas stations. Schools are an economic hub for the communities they reside in. Helping rural public school districts should be at the top of anyone’s list to helping rural Iowa.

Nationwide there is a debate going on about transparency in the classroom, across the national media and social media, liberal and conservative leaning. No matter what side, the most vital role a parent can play is being a part of their child’s education. Every parent should want to know what their child is being taught. It is also important to know all the teachers in the classroom are trained professionals. Before any drastic measures, parents should talk to their local teachers in a constructive manner. Like everything in life, society should not get wrapped up in the national storyline of the day/week. Keep the issues local. Learn and interact with the teachers who play a role in your child’s education.

Getting swept up in the national dialogue could lead to potential issues for these rural school districts. Iowa like most of the nation has a workforce issue, and even more so because of the Hawkeye State’s slow population growth. Bringing and retaining educators into rural school districts is already hard to begin with. The pandemic has exacerbated this issue with the anxiety of society affecting schoolchildren with different teachers or classmates being out days on end and school events being canceled last minute due to COVID-19. The regular rhythm of school most of us experienced growing up has been drastically altered in the last two years. This culminates in a more stressful environment for teachers, parents, and students.

In addition to this workforce issue, public schools have been consistently underfunded since 2017. While they are increasing the public education budget, the trendy word of the last few months, inflation, has always been bigger than this increase. This leads to the dollars the schools do have to be less valuable than if the public education budget was at least increased at the level of inflation. This could potentially lead to cuts in programs, teachers, and a potential drop in a child’s quality of education. For a state with a one-room schoolhouse on the state quarter, this is not a road Iowa should continue to go down.

Another bill introduced last session and continuing into this session is the introduction of private school vouchers. This means public school dollars would follow students if they wanted to attend private schools. While this year there has been a change to lessen the blow for rural school districts, it merely moves money around thus still hurting public schools at large. Public taxpayer dollars should go to public uses, not private uses. At the end of the day, if this bill passes, less money stays in public schools. Public tax dollars should only be used for public uses.

Another bill that could hurt rural public schools is one that introduces cameras in the classroom to monitor teachers. This makes an already stressful job more stressful. The logistics and cost to fulfill this bill would further impact a school’s finances. Instead of spending money on cameras for the classroom, spend it on schoolchildren’s actual education. The argument appears to be teachers should have cameras on them like other public servants such as police officers. If this framework holds true, then why not film our representatives at the state legislature to see who they are meeting with day in and day out? Shoutout to the On Iowa Politics Podcast for this suggestion.

The most important takeaway for rural public schools and those concerned with their child’s education is to have a thoughtful conversation with their teachers and school boards. Do not rush to believe the national narrative without first understanding and, to quote Al Roker, “What is happening in your neck of the woods.” Local matters, national does not so much. Unfortunately, social media skews towards national narratives as do national media programs on television and radio. In the end, providing a high-quality education to children is the most significant role society plays. Helping – not putting rural public schools at a disadvantage – is what every person should want. When a small town loses its school, it loses its sense of identity. When it loses its sense of identity, what else is there? Schools close, businesses close, people leave, and the town is never once what it was. No one should want this to be an outcome for our children and for our towns, no matter what role they fulfill in society.