DES MOINES — A new student organization that promotes awareness and education in rural life is in its beginning stages at Iowa State.

Jay Jung, freshman in agricultural education, and Jeremy Peterson, junior in management information systems, want to make people aware that rural communities can provide opportunities for its residents.

“Most people don’t realize the rural communities really do have their culture,” Peterson said. “We just want others who want to raise a family in a rural setting to know that is it possible. Teachers are preparing you in your classes to leave for the cities, but we want to show that there is life outside of the city.”

The idea for this organization came about when Jung, Peterson and three other students from an ISU curriculum and instruction class attended a meeting with the Governor’s Strategic Planning Committee on Feb. 22 to discuss the issues facing rural communities across Iowa.

Melissa Hosch, sophomore in family and consumer sciences education; Becky Thurn, freshmen in exercise sport science; and Mike Witt, sophomore in agricultural education, also went to the Des Moines conference.

The committee members wanted to get ideas from Iowans about how to keep small communities alive and keep young people in the state. One focus was the shortage of teachers in the state.

“When I graduate, I am going to stay in Iowa, but a lot of teachers aren’t because you can go to other states right out of college and get a $15,000 signing bonus,” Witt said. “We have some of the best teachers here in this state, but they are being taught to leave.”

Witt raised these issues to the committee on behalf of the ISU group.

“There is a problem with teacher shortages in the state,” Witt said. “It seems to be a topic in the Legislature and the news, but every year this problem gets pushed back further and further.”

Paul Lasley, ISU rural and agricultural sociology professor, said the Internet could be a factor in keeping small schools competitive.

“Many Iowans report they have watched their children leave and now their grandchildren are 500 miles away living in other states. Perhaps we should think about using the Internet to reach out to small schools,” he said. “We need to look at the broad scheme of agricultural education and the teacher crunch, and I think we need to look at trying to link some things together.”

State Sen. Neal Schuerer, D-Toledo, spoke personally with the ISU students about education during the conference. Schuerer asked the students if they thought K-12 education was a privilege or a right, and they had mixed opinions.

“If it is not a right, then what about low-income [students] and minorities?” Hosch asked. “We have to make education available to them, also.”

Schuerer told the students about a college student who failed a class because he was unable to comprehend an instructor who spoke poor English.

“Education is no different than other commodities,” Schuerer said. “If you buy a product at the store that is bad, you will get your money back. But that student didn’t get any tuition back for receiving a bad education in that class.”

The council will report back to Gov. Tom Vilsack by this summer with a strategic plan and a collection of their own proposals.