WHY NOT HERE? Rep. Elesha Gayman hopes to provide reasons to stay

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By Elesha Gayman | Thursday, December 28, 2006 5:12 PM CST | () comments

Newly elected Iowa state representative Elesha Gayman celebrates at The Hat in Davenport the day after her election win. FILE PHOTO

“Should I stay or should I go?” This question happens to be the title of a 1982 song by The Clash and is on the minds of many young Iowans today. Iowa’s “brain drain” has caught national attention, but the solutions to keep Iowa’s best and brightest have proved elusive.

The Clash suggests, “If you go there will be trouble,” but for many young Iowans they learn that “if you stay it will be double.” Iowa currently ranks among the highest average student loan debt in the country. My very own University of Iowa has seen an increase of more than 70 percent since my graduation in 2001, and there are no signs of slowdown. Community colleges are no better off, ranking 9th highest in tuition in the nation. As a first-generation college graduate, I was proud to get that degree but I have to wonder if it was worth the seemingly bottomless pit of student loan debt that came with it.

You have the degree and now what? If you choose to suck it up like many college graduates (54 percent nationally including myself) you may find yourself living at home with mom and dad while you work feverishly at multiple jobs to make that student loan payment every month. Most likely, after the average six months to two years, you will find a job that has reasonable pay and health insurance if you’re lucky. Over 60 percent of recent college graduates nationally are living and working without such benefits.

My story is not uncommon. We need to take aggressive steps in looking at this issue before it becomes a financial problem for all Iowans. Iowa has the oldest per capita population in the nation and Iowa is 49th in retaining its college graduates. You don’t have to have a degree in actuary science to see that we have a serious tax crisis looming if we don’t mobilize now to stop our hemorrhaging tax base.

First, young Iowans need to take a seat at the table. In addition to serving on the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service, I was honored to become one of eight new Iowa House of Representative members under the age of 30 and the youngest woman currently serving the Iowa Legislature this past November. I encourage other young Iowans to find a seat on a state board or commission, or run for office themselves. It is up to us to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. It is up to us to turn Iowa’s Brain Drain into Brain Gain.

If Brain Gain is the goal, we need to talk to young people. I plan on working to help Iowa form a commission on this very issue. With representatives in state, out of state, and of varied political, socio-economic and educational backgrounds we can start to get real recommendations to create Brain Gain. This commission could be used not only to better the quality of life for young people in Iowa, but also to recruit new business to our state, and show the rest of the country that Iowa is a great place to live, work, raise a family, and be a young adult.

Despite my personal struggles and the long road ahead, I couldn’t be more proud to be from Iowa. I only hope to help create more opportunities for other young people who also want to invest in Iowa. As a child, when I would complain of boredom, my mom used to tell me, “If you are bored it is because you are boring.” What you get out of life is largely what you make of it.

My experience running and winning a seat in the Iowa legislature tells me that not only is there a place for young people in Iowa, but our fellow Iowans are willing to embrace our generation and help us make our dreams our reality. Perhaps that is the silver bullet. The best thing we have going for us right now is we have the one commodity that can’t be exported to Chicago, Minneapolis or California: our families, our friends, and our neighbors that believe in us.

And for me, that support makes the question simple. I will stay. I will work in a field that I love and have a front row seat in shaping the future of our state. My challenge is to other young Iowans to do the same.

Add your story about the reasons you moved from or to the Quad-Cities.

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