Monday, October 19, 2020
Trigger warning: Breaking with normal practice, this column will for the next two weeks touch on politics.
Some years ago, when reports revealed that nearly half of students at the University of Iowa were from out of state, lawmakers began voicing criticism. The Board of Regents responded with a new funding formula that rewarded our state’s three universities for enrolling native Iowans.
It was an unfortunate response to a misguided concern. For decades, Iowa observers had lamented the loss of our best high school and college graduates to other states, the so-called brain drain. By attracting students from elsewhere, the regents universitie...
