Lurching right isn’t plugging brain drain

Iowa has been trying for decades to plug Iowa’s brain drain, shorthand for the flow of educated young people leaving Iowa.

Many efforts have been undertaken by state lawmakers and governors over the years to entice young people to stay put. Twenty years ago, in 2005, Iowa Senate Republicans proposed eliminating income taxes for workers under age 30.

It was among the boldest ideas for stemming outward migration, and it got some national attention. But the proposal was a legislative lead balloon and died without action.

And the drain continues.

A report compiled by the Common Sense Institute found Iowa has the seventh-highest net out migration of young people 25-29 in the U.S. It’s the highest rate in the Midwest.

Each year between 1982 and 2024, according to the report, an average of 1,000 young people left the state. That’s 41,000 brains that drained out of the state.

In 2023, Iowa lost a net of 3,445 college-educated adults ages 25-29. The departures take billions of dollars in cumulative personal income, according to the institute’s modeling.

We also say farewell to a significant public investment and tax dollars — roughly $383,991 per each of those people.

The institute found the total private and public costs to educate an Iowa student who entered kindergarten in 2006 and graduated from a state university in 2022 added up to $255,713 per head.

The report says one reason for out migration is lots of young, educated people leave Iowa to pursue their careers in stronger labor markets elsewhere, ones that pay more and offer a more diverse economy.

The report does not weigh in on current political, economic, health, or other issues Iowa is struggling to solve.

We understand the difficulty of quantifying why people leave. But that’s a big hole in the institute’s analysis that merits serious discussion. And it’s likely Iowa’s lurch to single party control has had an effect.

For example, look at Iowa’s three state universities. Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Northern Iowa have endured years of underfunding, despite being attractors of young minds for decades. Now the campuses are subjected to a right-wing push to erase all signs pf diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. GOP lawmakers have sought to dictate curriculum.

Free speech and academic freedom have suffered while education quality has been degraded.

College students from Iowa and out of state will leave or stay based on myriad factors. But politically punishing and damaging higher education does not make the state more attractive. It weakens our biggest economic engines. Challenges with access to comprehensive health care, state-sponsored discrimination against LGBTQ Iowans and pollution in our waterways also are not benefitting Iowa’s pitch to young people.

Building a state where you can get a quality education, civil rights protections and natural resource protections – not double-digit beach closures – would be more attractive than the current version of Iowa.

It’s at least something to consider as out migration deals a significant blow to Iowa’s economy and the state’s efforts to deal with a shortage of workers.

Those efforts could be bipartisan, considering every part of the state is affected. That’s a tall order but so is plugging the drain.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com