I love Iowa. After growing up in Ottumwa and graduating from Indianola’s Simpson College, I worked in South Dakota at the start of my career. I enjoyed my years in the Mount Rushmore State, but its higher education system pales in comparison with Iowa’s, and the same is true of other surrounding states. So I’m grateful to have spent the last 18 years in Iowa’s higher education system.
Iowa is the envy of other states when it comes to our full complement of higher education options: three top-notch regents institutions, 15 excellent community colleges, and 26 nonprofit, private colleges and universities that each contribute to the economy, culture and quality of life in the communities they call home. Iowans are blessed to have access to each of these options, and we desperately need all three to continue flourishing.
And yet, Iowa’s House of Representatives is poised to advance a bill that would likely lead to the closure of some of Iowa’s private colleges. If House Study Bill 533 becomes law, Iowa taxpayers will be on the hook for $20 million (for starters) to enable Iowa’s community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees, something the state’s three public universities and 26 private colleges already do exceedingly well…