College towns are siphoning students out of the rural heart of the Farm Belt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

College towns are siphoning students out of the rural heart of the Farm Belt and sending them to urban centers

Link to tweet

Rural Youth Chase Big-City Dreams
More rural high-school graduates see college not so much as a door to opportunity as a ticket out of Nowheresville

By Dante Chinni | Photography by Danny Wilcox Frazier/VII for The Wall Street Journal
June 26, 2017 8:00 a.m. ET

....
As more young people decide to pursue four-year degrees, college towns are siphoning students out of the rural heart of the Farm Belt and sending them, degrees in hand, not back to Oskaloosa but to the nation’s urban centers.

Overwhelmingly, University of Iowa students after graduation either stay near the university or scatter to Chicago, Des Moines or other big cities, according to Emsi, a Moscow, Idaho, advisory firm that analyzes labor markets. In 2014, Mahaska County sent some 170 people to Johnson County, home of the University of Iowa, according to Census data, while Johnson County sent only about 20 people back. As recently as 2000, Mahaska Country was sending 73 people to Johnson County and nearly as many, or 71, came back.

The outflow of young adults is one reason the population of Mahaska County is standing still. It has dipped 1% since 2000, while Johnson’s population has grown 32%.
....

[rurallib]

1. such a strange word to use - siphoning

The way they use siphoning it sounds like they are being sucked up and deposited in a college town against their will.

Could just be that the kids assess their futures and see that in their small home towns there simply isn't much of a future? Iowa has a hard time even keeping their own population in the state.

Our daughters both left Iowa because of lack of real opportunity. With Iowa's hard turn to the right politically it has lost one of its main claims to fame - the toleration that accepted people from other areas.

The article is behind a pay wall, so I am just going by your OP.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. You can get to the article through TWSJ.'s Twitter account. NT

[47of74]

4. As I said before I'm seriously considering leaving Iowa

Once I'm done with school I might leave myself. Especially now that Iowa is turning in to North Alabama.

[rurallib]

7. we are also

north alabama is about right

[murielm99]

3. There is nothing new about this.

People go to live where there are jobs. Figure out ways to offer opportunities to young college graduates, and some of them will stay.

[47of74]

5. And encourage professionals to take jobs in rural areas

A problem that many rural areas are seeing these days is a shortage of professionals in rural areas - such as doctors and lawyers. Take lawyers. With some counties here in Iowa one can count on a single hand the number of practicing attorneys they have, and still have fingers left over. To get legal services many residents of these communities have to drive a couple hours to a larger town. Same with doctors. According to this site 73 of the 99 counties here need more primary care doctors. I imagine some of the more rural counties it's a couple hours drive to see one's doctor.

It's not just Iowa that has the problem, but all the midwestern states. I think there needs to be more work to encourage such professionals to work in rural areas, helping them with their student debt and making sure they have all the support they need.

[murielm99]

6. I am in rural Northern Illinois,

not that far from you. I am south of Rockford.

I think the problems you describe are only going to get worse. I see small communities around me dying, and school enrollment dropping. Unless people have a family business or farm to take over, they will not stay. While I would love to see more of them stay, I discouraged my own children from settling here.

Lately, I have seen a few people return to my small community. They have worked in the wider world, and come home because of opportunities here. A couple of them work as medical professionals. One is a lawyer, and one is a career law enforcement officer.

I would love to see some of the returning people get help with student debt. The communities have to have the money for this, though. Most small communities are poor.

[47of74]

8. I think they see what they had missed out on growing up

Plus they may feel able to be themselves more in Iowa City or urban areas such as Des Moines, Chicago, or other big cities than in small rural communities. They get exposed to differing beliefs and people who are different then them. While some retreat back in to their shells others completely change over the course of their time away.

Alternet had this article last year about how religious fundamentalism in rural America had a rigidity about it. Maybe that's causing young people to move to larger urban areas where there is more freedom of belief and expression than too many rural areas.