Look at our schools and see . . . US!

This article can be found at http://www.clownsiniowa.com/:

Give Me a Brake
by Keith Brake

Look at our schools and see . . .US!

At what point does a rural community collectively decide whether to draw a line in that fertile Iowa soil to indicate: "The slide stops here . .from this day on, we go forward"?

We've reached a crossroads moment in our community's history.

The school needs a makeover.

Most probably will agree at some level with that.

But makeovers are expensive these days. That's a real issue. It's a tough call and it's one each individual voter will have to consider.

If you want to see the future, just look to the north. Rural Minnesota is gasping. It has been that way for at least a generation, since the emergence of the Twin Cities as a city-state, not acutely in need any longer of the vast lands that surround it.

Iowa breathes a little bit more easily, if only because the Des Moines metro isn't large enough (yet) to stand alone the way Minneapolis-St. Paul does. But it's growing. It's getting there.

I read an article on the Minnesota 20/20 website in which John Van Hecke, a Minnesota 2020 Fellow, articulates what has happened there.

He says agriculture is the financial backbone. But farming isn't what it was 100 years ago. Small towns that were ag service centers were vibrant and could be found every seven to 10 miles. They began forming in the 1870s and 1880s.

Over time, farms grew into larger operations. Technology relieved some of the labor-intensity. Farmers may farm roughly the same acreage today, but they don't need as much manual help.

It all means fewer families living around small towns. And, fewer in the small towns. Fewer people on the farm means less localized business opportunity in the farm services sector.

Ag business is alive and well, but it's more centered in regional clusters. There's employment there, too, including more of the kind that can pay a viable living wage.

In Minnesota, the author says, the state legislature has cut funding to education. That has led to community decline as school districts are forced to consolidate, sometimes with already merged districts, and close more school buildings.

"Small towns," he writes, "face a brutal downward spiral of contraction feeding upon contraction. A town's school is the measure of community fiscal health. Closing the school building irrevocably alters the town's identity."
He goes on, but he could have stopped right there. Identity. Autonomy as a community.

That's what this is about.

Do you think the Iowa Legislature will always vote to cut back spending on education or force expensive mandates on local districts? I'm not so sure.

It doesn't appear there is much we can do to control the federal government. But we can control us. And we can still make ourselves heard in Des Moines.

I'm not native to Iowa. I'm from a neighboring state. But I've always marveled - and scratched my head, really - at how voters in what should be a conservative farm state like this can sometimes change direction and vote for liberal candidates or ideas.

Maybe, just maybe, it means that Iowans aren't as stubborn as their neighbors. Maybe it has something to do with the 99 percent-plus literacy rate (achieved in their local schools!) It could be that Iowans have learned (in hometown schools) to change their minds, especially when it means preserving at least a portion of their lifestyle.

We are fortunate here to have school and community leadership that recognizes the role of the schools in community development.
Montezuma and its schools are joined at the hip.

What's good for students and families is also good for the community. Leadership in both the schools and the community have found their way to the same page regarding this topic in recent years.

Other materials I have studied reinforce my own belief that a sharp school system strengthens local identity and the sense of common purpose.
Good schools help to maintain or increase property values.

When citizens are actively engaged in the schools or the community, populations tend to remain anchored to the community. That's an area where Montezuma and its schools have both improved a lot in recent years. Engagement. Relationships. It's good for business. It's good, period.

We're fortunate to have a major employer here that is growing rapidly and seeks to attract executive talent to the community.
There is tremendous outdoor recreational opportunity here.

If you can't see Montezuma as an attractive place to live and raise a family - chances are you haven't had the need to go out and look around. From the perspective of someone looking for a place to land, this area offers a lot and has even more potential.
We have to grow, in a controlled, planned way. We must go forward, or we will go away, quietly, into the night. That is happening even now in much of rural Iowa. It doesn't have to happen here.

We cannot become again the agricultural hub we once were.

The days of multiple grocery stores and crowds three and four deep on Main Street on Saturday nights are gone and are not coming back. But, we will discover that the roads run both ways.

We can still provide a high level of service to agriculture.

We can be a drop-dead gorgeous residential community.


We can embrace and enhance our position as a little industrial powerhouse on the prairie.
We need to understand just what it is we are becoming . . . and then determine to be really good at it . . .the best!
And, whatever that is . .we will need good schools.
The destination? Don't worry about it! The journey is what's fun . . .and it's never-ending.