Jacobs: Education, employment keys to improving economy

CORALVILLE – Mark Jacobs isn't sure whether he'll run for the U.S. Senate.

So he was up at 5 a.m. Monday and made seven stops in five counties as part of his effort to decide if he will enter the contest for the Republican nomination for the first open-seat Senate race in Iowa since 1974 when he was in middle school.

One of those stops was in the back booth of a Coralville coffeehouse introducing himself to a dozen area Republicans and seeking their advice on whether he should run for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Tom Harkin.

He assured them he's not a politician, but someone who cares about making sure people have the opportunity to succeed.” The key to success, according to Jacobs, 51, is education.

“When I graduated high school in 1980, Iowa had the best education,” he said. Now, Iowa rates in the middle of the pack, according to Jacobs, who earlier this year founded Reaching Higher Iowa, a private education foundation that lobbies for public education reform.

He also served on the board of a Houston KIPP -- Knowledge Is Power Program – school. KIPP is a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools.

Education, he said, is the key to employment, which is one of Jacob's highest priorities.

“We don't do a good job of matching education to the job market,” he said. As a result, many students graduate from college “with a mountain of debt and then find out they don't have the job skills they need.”

The 51-year-old father of three sees a “double benefit” in getting people back to work because they pay taxes to support essential government spending and lessen the demand on the social safety net.

In addition to education, Jacobs, a free market advocate, wants to stimulate the “lethargic” economy by eliminating “excessive regulations that strangle job creation” and modify tax policies to prevent jobs and business from going overseas.

The former CEO of Reliant Energy has received plenty of encouragement for a Senate campaign over the past couple of months as he's made similar stops and had similar conversations with Iowans across the state. He expects to continue his listening tour for another two months before making a decision on the race.

“I want to meet as many people as possible to determine whether there is support for the kind of candidate I would be,” he said.

In addition to the encouragement, Jacobs has received “a significant dose of reality” in terms of understanding what it would take to be successful.

“It's a helpful process and every day I walk away with a lot of confidence in Iowans,” he said.

In addition to Jacobs, other Republicans eying the Senate seat include Ankeny attorney Matt Whitaker, former U.S. Senate staffer David Young, college professor Sam Clovis, Paul Lunde and Scott Schaben, both of Ames, and Sen. Joni Ernst of Red Oak.

U.S. 1

^st

District Rep. Bruce Braley of Waterloo is the presumptive Democratic nominee.