Is Iowa life really that great?

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by princesspiggies

We moved to IA from VA and experienced the same thing. Higher income tax, more than double real estate property tax, comparable personal property tax, higher sales tax, higher gasoline tax...and other than a YMCA-like community center (that requires a membership fee for most things!), I'm not sure where it goes.

IA had a reputation for good schools, but that's not as true anymore. Public schools here are underfunded, and it's only getting worse. Education funding has been the political football in IA legislature in the two years we have lived here. State law constrains what school districts can spend...so even if they want to raise taxes to fund more teachers, they can't.

I also worked in southwest VA before moving to IA for a year and got the tax sticker shock too. IA is a pretty high tax state for one that isn't super-liberal and in flyover country.

[fezzador]

Originally Posted by Northeasterner1970

I don't think Iowa has one of the best public education systems in the United States but I think it has a lot more to do with environments Than funding. Iowa has five times as many ESL students than 20 years ago. I think immigrants are really good for Iowa but I think many school districts in Iowa may be unprepared for this immigrant influx. Also as many small towns continue to decay, I think that also puts stresses on the school enviroment. But there is also good news, The Des Moines Public School district has continued to make
Improvements even though it is becoming poorer and poorer. There is a national journal article on it.

Why Des Moines Can Be a Model for Urban Schools - The Atlantic

Iowa public schools did have a pretty strong reputation back in the day, but that was when the small towns ruled the roost. More and more rural schools are finding themselves forced to merge with other school systems simply to survive. Some of the school buildings themselves don't even survive the move (there's loads of pictures of these old rural schools being demolished... shame, some of them have quite a bit of history).

To add insult to injury, Iowa isn't particularly competitive when it comes to teaching salaries. When the average teacher's salary is in the bottom half nationally, it's just not conducive for attracting top teaching talent. Some of them honestly are little more than glorified babysitters that just happen to have a teaching certificate.

[ION1010]

But, we have our fun!

Firefighters bust into chimney, rescue naked hide-and-seeker

[Dewey59]

Originally Posted by ION1010

But, we have our fun!

Firefighters bust into chimney, rescue naked hide-and-seeker

I remember those days well.... Seems like a lot of unstable people (at least per capita) live in Iowa! Maybe it's just that these kind of stories don't hit the tv news in bigger cities like here in Phoenix, but I do remember wondering why there were so many incidents like this when I lived in IA.

Two stories from Cedar Rapids that come to mind were a guy that repeatedly rammed the back of the car in front of him at the drive up window of a fast food restaurant because he was in a hurry to get his food and another guy that was masturbating on a downtown street corner during the annual Freedom Festival. Guess he had his own definition of "Freedom"!

[ION1010]

The year we moved here, 2000, there was an article in the local paper about a guy that was discovered at the local community college completely naked with a tied up sheep. According to the article "A blue nightgown was located nearby". Not kidding.

I felt I finally found my home.

Man Accused of Having Sex With Sheep

[jasper1372]

It all depends on what you're looking for. Some can be happy as can be in Minnesota, some Iowa, some the Mountain West, or the deserts of the Southwest.

All are right ! Only you can decide what makes you happy. Some like flat land, some mountains, some arid desert, some want to live near the ocean. Some wish to live around people who leave you alone, some want an area where you move in and 10 neighbors come over to introduce themselves the first week.

There is no one place that works for everyone....not even close !

Iowa is a fine place to live, if you're looking for what Iowa has to offer. Your job is to figure out what Iowa has to offer, and figure out if that is what would make you happy.

[Dewey59]

Originally Posted by ION1010

The year we moved here, 2000, there was an article in the local paper about a guy that was discovered at the local community college completely naked with a tied up sheep. According to the article "A blue nightgown was located nearby". Not kidding.

I felt I finally found my home.

Man Accused of Having Sex With Sheep

I had forgotten about that one! Definitely a classic!

[funksoulbro]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

IA is a pretty high tax state for one that isn't super-liberal and in flyover country.

It's expensive keeping Governor Branstad's reanimated corpse alive so he can conduct the people's business. A story in the Des Moines Register says it costs taxpayers about $800,000 per hour to keep him biologically viable.

Once we get a governor who isn't among the un-dead, the taxpayer's burden should decrease significantly.