Iowa
A quick case for more Iowa optimism
Noah Gratias is an Iowa State alum from Waukee.
Whether in political debates, Bleeding Heartland essays, or everyday conversations, the idea that Iowa is in decline is frequently invoked. Many Iowans worry about brain drain, water quality, health care access, and the job market.
Still, Iowa is better off than much of this rhetoric suggests. By many measures that count, including affordability, education, and health care, Iowa remains one of the country’s best places to live.
Slow, steady population growth
Iowa’s population growth has been slower than the national average for years, and many business leaders would like to see it speed up. While good for business, population growth alone does not necessarily improve the quality of life of most Iowans. My hometown of Waukee is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. It now has everything people once had to drive ten minutes to West Des Moines for: Indian food, a Target, and traffic. The wave of new car washes, fast-food joints, and other businesses has undoubtedly made developers and city hall a lot of money while creating jobs for many of the area’s new residents. But growth has also brought bigger city headaches, including an overcrowded jail and higher costs.
While growth is uneven, many areas across the state are doing just fine. In 2025, Iowa was ranked second in the country by U.S. News for “opportunity.” The ranking accounted for things like affordability, economic opportunity, and food insecurity. Iowa’s $7.25 minimum wage does not appear to suppress earnings, as Iowa workers are paid about the same, if not more, than workers in surrounding states.
Still, when most people talk about population, they are really worried about brain drain. Considering that affordability and community are top factors considered by moving Americans, Iowa is actually well positioned. If the state were losing folks at the rate of New York or California, we’d be in real trouble. Iowa’s young people are exceptional, and there is little the state can do to stop them from pursuing opportunities around the country. If Iowa remains a wonderful place to live, many will eventually move back, and those who do not will at least be home for Christmas.
Great schools and teachers
Measuring how well students are doing is never simple, but standardized testing offers one useful, if imperfect, snapshot. By that measure, Iowa ranked sixth in the country for K-12 academic performance in 2025, up from twelfth the year before.
But testing isn’t the only area in which Iowa does well. There are just fourteen students per teacher in our state, access to arts education is nearly ubiquitous, and there are several ongoing efforts to expand civics education. (Thankfully Iowans have a strong civic baseline anyway.)
Iowa also leads the country in providing different educational options to families. This flexibility continues beyond high school, where students can choose from a number of affordable and well-regarded colleges and universities offering deep catalogs of liberal arts, STEM, and vocational learning. An absurd forty-three thousand high school students last year were jointly enrolled in college and high school classes.
All this schooling must be working, as adult literacy rates in Iowa are slightly higher than those in surrounding states. While New Hampshire, Utah, and a few other states might log slightly better test scores, Iowa teachers and students remain near the front of the pack despite considerably less spending per pupil.
Longer lives and understood risks
Despite gaps in rural treatment, Iowa’s health care system is ranked fourth in the country by WalletHub based on cost, access, and outcomes. In a Gallup poll, Iowans gave the state’s health care a C+, which was the highest rating in the country.
While the cancer rate in Iowa remains far too high, Iowans are living longer than ever before. As the University of Iowa’s Brian Kaskie has noted, “this is the first generation in history where we’ll just see a lot of folks reach the age of 100,” reflecting better access to health care and steadier employment.
Iowa’s leading health challenges are linked to well-known and largely preventable risk factors, including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and obesity. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the state. Public health researchers continue to emphasize tobacco control as the most important way to improve cancer outcomes. The 2026 Cancer in Iowa study notes that lower rates of smoking and drinking likely explain why farmers experience less cancer than the broader Iowa population, despite factors like pesticide exposure. While imperfect, Iowa’s health care system remains relatively affordable and continues to support longer, healthier lives in our state.
Plenty of reasons for Iowa optimism
Iowa has problems, but it also has the advantage of being full of people who still care about fixing them. Our water and air need to be cleaned up, our kids are slightly worse at math than kids in Utah, 498 S&P 500 companies are not headquartered in Iowa, many of us smoke and drink too much, and plenty of older Iowans have to drive too far to see a doctor.
Yet, Iowa is an amazing place to grow up and grow old. As we work to make our home a better place, perhaps we can pair some of the critiques with a bit more gratitude and perspective. Iowa’s future depends not on what government provides, but on what Iowans build and improve together.
Top photo of the Iowa state capitol at dawn is by Sean Pavone, available via Shutterstock.
With June rapidly finishing up, that means the Iowa high school softball season is preparing to enter the stretch run of the year.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament will begin Monday, July 20, in Fort Dodge at Rogers Park, bringing together many of the top teams and players in the state. High School On SI Iowa currently provides a Top 25 state softball power rankings, so now, we need to see who the top players are.
Below are the nominees for the High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player of the Year in each classification. Stats listed with the player are from Bound and based on those numbers imputed as of June 26, 2026 at noon CT.
Feel free to vote as many times as you like, with voting set to close on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player Of The Year Nominees
Rachel Eglseder, Edgewood-Colesburg, Senior
Eglseder owns a 16-5 record, striking out 225 batters with a 1.66 earned run average while adding 11 extra-base hits and 40 RBI at the plate.
Rylee Mudderman, Kee, Junior
Mudderman continues to be a difficult out, batting .488 this season with two homers, 11 doubles and four triples. She has driven in 38 and scored 35 times, stealing 10 bases.
Faith Shirbroun, St. Edmond, Senior
Speaking of tough outs, Shirbroun owns a batting average of .606 this season, recording seven homers, 17 doubles and five triples. She has driven in 36 and scored 37 times, stealing 22 bases while setting several school records for hitting.
Sydney Lovrien, Clarksville, Senior
The ace for the defending state champions, Lovrien is 13-5 with 100 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched. She also has 23 hits and 21 RBI at the plate.
Sam Kruckenberg, Mason City Newman Catholic, Senior
A veteran now, Kruckenberg owns an 18-4 record with 227 strikeouts and a 1.23 earned run average. She is batting .440 with five homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBI at the plate.
About Our Midseason Player of the Year Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The Iowa chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors of America (LICA) officially opened a new facility on its 80-acre demonstration farm in Marshall County Thursday.
Iowa LICA President Scott Bohle said having classroom and meeting space will make it easier to educate the next generation of professional contractors, along with government employees, lawmakers and students, to help conserve soil and water in the state.
Bohle said the building “gives people a place to gather, collaborate and continue the important work that defines our association.”
Just outside the new space are wetlands, terraces, sediment control basins, bioreactors and other features, which members have built since LICA purchased the farm near Melbourne in 2000.
“We call it the one-stop shop, where you can see anything being put to practice by our landowners,” said Kelby Kiefer, executive director of Iowa LICA.
Together, these “edge-of-field” practices remove 50% of phosphates and almost 100% of the nitrates from the runoff of a 1,000-plus acre watershed, according to the association.
Adding more wetlands, saturated buffers and bioreactors across the state are a key part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It aims to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields by 41% and 29%, respectively.
The strategy is part of a broader effort to reduce nutrient pollution in the state’s waterways and the Gulf of Mexico by 45% compared to the 1980-96 baseline period. It does not include a target date.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state has accelerated edge-of-field practices in recent years, in part through the Batch and Build model. The approach bundles projects in a targeted watershed to reduce costs and save time for farmers and contractors.
Nearly 150 nitrate reducing wetlands and around 500 saturated buffers, bioreactors and multi-purpose oxbows had been built in the state as of 2024. Thousands more will be needed to meet the state’s nutrient reduction targets.
“[Clean water is] something we need to be focused on, and we can be proud of the work that’s happened, but we know that we need to do more,” Naig said. “Buildings like this help.”
Naig said scaling up conservation infrastructure across the state will require more skilled contractors. He described them as the “critical link” between concepts and “getting things on the ground.”
“It’s from that point where you say, ‘We have a design that’s ready to go, a willing landowner,’ but somebody needs to make it happen,” Naig said. “The land improvement contractor sits in that very important spot.”
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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