Trump Accounts: Iowa Should Put Its Money Where Its Kids Are

 

Iowa has tried just about everything to keep young people here.

 

We’ve run advertising campaigns, handed out tax incentives, built industrial parks, and spent millions making our cities more attractive. We’ve added bike trails, skate parks, breweries, apartments, and entertainment districts. Too many young people pack a U-Haul and leave.

 

Maybe we’re attacking the problem from the wrong end.

 

We wait until someone is 22, diploma in hand and a job offer from Denver or Seattle, then suddenly explain why Iowa is a great place to live. That’s like trying to sell a house after the moving truck pulls away.

 

Trump Accounts give Iowa a chance to try something different. Instead of waiting until young people are ready to leave, we should start investing in them when they’re kids.

 

Trump Accounts are investment accounts for children. Eligible children born from 2025 through 2028 can receive a onetime $1,000 federal contribution if their parents make the required election.

 

After that, parents, relatives, employers, and certain other groups can add money under federal rules. Employers can contribute up to $2,500 a year to the account of an employee or an employee’s child through a qualifying program.

Hello and Goodbye! How Can Iowa Stop the Outflow of People?

 

Iowa has a strange habit.

We spend eighteen years raising kids, building schools, coaching their ball teams, and telling them to study hard and make something of themselves. Then we send them off to a state or local college.

Four years later, they graduate, pack a U-Haul, and hit the highway—headed for anywhere but here.

Hello, college freshman. Goodbye, college graduate.

We’ve been doing this for years, and it’s catching up with us. Iowa is getting older. We’re running short of workers. Too many young Iowans leave and never come back.

In 2008, 47 percent of Iowa college students planned to stay after graduation. By 2024, it was down to 41 percent. Do that year after year, and the numbers add up.

Jobs are part of the problem. A software engineer will find more opportunities in Minneapolis than Fort Dodge. Someone interested in filmmaking or advertising has a bigger playing field in Chicago or Denver than Ottumwa.

But jobs are only one piece of the puzzle. Young people want more than a job. They want a life and people their age to share it with.

It’s like choosing between two restaurants. One is packed. The other has three cars out front, and one belongs to the cook.