Dennis Parmenter is living out his dream.

“Since I was 7 years old, I was going to go to law school, and I was going to go into politics someday,” he said.

Parmenter, who runs the Parmenter & Humke law firm in Huxley, is the Democratic candidate for the Iowa House District 62 seat against Republican Gentry Collins.

Parmenter said he made the decision about his future after reading a book about the presidency and talking with his brother.

“From that point on, everybody knew that those were my goals,” he said. “It always fit in because I loved to argue with people.”

Whether by argument or other means, Parmenter has a few ideas to implement if he is elected to the Legislature, especially in education.

As an Iowa State alumnus and the father of an ISU freshman, he has firsthand knowledge of tuition increases, and he said he opposes the proposed 5.2 percent raise.

“I know how [students] struggle to pay [their] way through school,” Parmenter said, remembering how he faced the pressure of paying tuition, room and board while still finding time to study. “In the back of your mind is: ‘How am I going to pay for next year?'” he said.

Parmenter’s plan for maintaining ISU’s status as “one of the great schools in the country” would include more state aid instead of relying on tuition dollars.

“I don’t want the reason that people don’t get through college to be that they couldn’t afford it,” he said. “That’s the whole point of our regents institutions — to make education available to people who can’t afford a private school.”

Parmenter has two ideas to improve elementary and secondary schools.

He wants to provide more money for hiring teachers in local districts, which would reduce class sizes, and he would raise teacher salaries from their current minimum of about $18,000. More help for schools would come through alternative programming for disruptive students.

“Teachers don’t need to worry about discipline. Teachers need to be involved in teaching,” Parmenter said.

These initiatives would not require any new taxes, he said.

House District 62 includes Ames south of Lincoln Way, as well as the downtown area and Helser Hall.