Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Troy McCullough, Tim Davis, Jennifer Holland, Kathleen Carlson and Jenny Hykes.

Not long ago, Iowa was known as the top state in the U.S. in education. Our educational facilities and resources were considered among the best in the U.S.

How times change.

A recent article in the Des Moines Register’s Metro section highlighted the difficulties some Iowa communities are having in keeping their children up-to-date in educational advancement.

Computers are the wave of the future. We’ve been told this for many years, and now the future is here. According to the article, some school districts are having difficulty providing their children with access to today’s most progressive computer technology to aid in their education. Without the access to the most modern of today’s technology, how is Iowa’s future, its students, to compete with the rest of the world?

Quite simply, they won’t.

Gov. Terry Branstad is slated to help alleviate some of the financial burden in which communities find themselves in an effort to step into the 21st century. He’s scheduled to sign a $150 million bill passed by the Iowa Legislature that will be disbursed over 5 years for schools to purchase computer equipment and training for teachers.

But the brunt of the responsibility ultimately falls on the taxpaying citizens of the communities. While the state support will help, many communities say it isn’t enough.

In the case of the city of Carlisle, it will have to do. The city voted down an attempt to pass a levy to help purchase the technology. Other towns have also found difficulty finding financial support from its citizens.

Odd, you’d think. While no one obviously wishes to make the sacrifice, what more important cause could there be than the future of Iowa’s children?

In the wake of the Des Moines school district’s Concerned Parents of Des Moines’ surge to eliminate discriminatory language from the school district’s hiring policies, it’s obvious Iowa parents are concerned about their children’s education. But which aspect are they most concerned about?