Eight members of the Iowa State U. track team will make their way Monday to Eugene, Oregon for the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Qualifying at the west regional meet over Memorial weekend, a stellar first and second place finish in the 10,000-meter left distance runner Lisa Koll, year three in veterinary medicine, and distance runner Betsy Saina, sophomore in child, adult and family services, in high spirits.

Koll and Saina will be side by side in the 5,000-meter as well.

Koll leaves for Eugene with the nation’s fastest 10,000-meter time.

“We want [Lisa] to do well,” said coach Travis Hartke. “Anytime you run a 5k and a 10k within two days of each other, it’s a hard devil.”

Distance runner Hillary Bor, senior in accounting, had a disappointing fifth place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase race.

With only 700 meters until the finish, Bor unexpectedly lost one of his shoes.

“I’m not 100 percent sure what happened,” Hartke said. “I think he went over a barrier and got clipped on the back of his shoe.”

Bor had to go through two more water jumps before he was reunited with his shoe.

“The guy behind him said ‘Oh, you don’t have a shoe on, and I’m not going to let you beat me. Why would a person with one shoe beat me?'” Hartke said.

Although the season has been a long one, Hartke is confident in all the athletes competing in Eugene.

“They race a lot,” Hartke said. “We worked out today, and we’re just trying to keep them safe, trying to get them to the national meet.”

Preparation for the championship meet isn’t any different than the regular season. The day to day routine is what keeps each person focused. So far, it is proving to be successful, building confidence in the runners.

Hartke credits success at the regional meet to the training and dedication given throughout the season.

I will be unavailable for interviews, e-mail or phone calls  — there’s no Internet on K-2 or Base Station Alpha — until I decide the consequences of my writing this have blown over, so don’t even try to speak to, or at, me.

So, here is how I see it.

You have a business; say a farming operation, a university, a widget factory or maybe an oil company.

Your mission is to run your business or organization as effectively as you can, at the lowest cost and with a maximum return of investment.

Yes, even universities or non-profits are expected to run their “businesses” that way.

So you conduct your business, and keep a sharp and constant eye on all the people in and out of government, local, state, national and even international who are trying to tell you how to run your business?

Many of them may have good and noble reasons for trying to meddle in your affairs. Many of them may have some neat ideas. However your mission is to run your outfit as best you can within the parameters you and your overseers — stockholders, state legislators or whoever — have laid out for you. Most of what these outsiders want you to do is gonna cost you big bucks — smaller classes, safer breaks.

You hire lobbyists; everyone does that. You set up a PR department; everybody does that. You spin how great you are and try to avoid or even suppress the bad stuff.

Think not? See how effectively U.S. universities have suppressed data on crime on their campuses and surrounding areas. See how effectively institutions of higher learning have been dead, cold silent about bad teaching by their faculty, or silenced criticism about professors and TA’s teaching course without having any command of the English language.

So if the noble universities “Education for the Greater Good,” to paraphrase TIAA-CREF, the favorite investment platform for academics, fuzz up or hide stuff, lets move on to the other players.

Of course coal mines fight safety regulations because mining is so dangerous it should be outlawed. To make a coal mine safe you’d have to spend so much nobody would buy or could afford your coal.

Of course drilling for oil is dangerous and messy. Remember those pictures from Pennsylvania and Texas during the oil rush — wooden drill platforms with crude blowing out the top and oil covered workers and owners dancing in the black rain. Or, even see what the drilling areas around sites in Nigeria, Ecuador, Iraq and other places look like. Yeesh!

So all these businesses fight off regulation — yup you got it, even banks, big insurance and investment firms — and if Congress and the regulators give the green light, they go about their business.

Let me ask you this, what are they supposed to do say, “Oh, no, this is way too little regulation. We would like you to double the expense we have doing our business please because we want to do this right.”

I don’t think so.

How many medical facilities, farmers, pharmaceutical companies, toy makers, car makers, plumbers, electricians, builders, mechanics and restaurants go out and ask for more regulation? Zero is the correct answer.

So all of these folks and the tens of thousands of others — day care centers, dentists, elder homes, boat builders, tutors — try to comply with regulations they’ve had imposed on them as best they can. But they are not compelled to, nor will they go at their own expense and peril, because competitors will NOT be doing so, to over-regulate themselves.

So, when things go wrong in the peanut butter industry, with imported toys or in the oil and gas industry, it is always the fault of the regulators; always.

They failed to do their job. They wrote rules that were weak. They had spotty and sketchy inspection and enforcement regimes.

So you see, the deep-water oil drilling industry will enforce whatever rules are imposed on them and they will pay fines for “omissions and mistakes” or for “accidents” but it’s the regulators who did not do their job.

Yes, these companies, like everyone named above including the ethanol industry and seed companies, will try to influence regulators and politicians. They will even use revolving doors at every opportunity: promise to hire politicians and regulators from agencies for fat, juicy jobs as soon as the waiting period is over.

The reason so few people you and I might consider scoundrels go to jail is that in fact they may not have broken laws so there’s nothing to prosecute. That’s why most of the Wall Street “Rock-n-Rollers” and “Real Estate Scammers” are still breathing outside air and are not in detention.

So it may be wrong, unethical, despicable and hideous, but everyone is bending the rules and avoiding over-regulation every single day of the week; including you.

Have a nice weekend.

— Steffen Schmidt is a professor of political science at Iowa State U.

Sexually transmitted diseases are scary. Sexually transmitted diseases that cause cancer are even scarier. The human papillomavirus, more commonly known as HPV, causes genital warts, and, in some cases, it can cause cervical cancer. The virus is transmitted through oral, vaginal and anal sex and is one of the most common STDs in the United States.

Thing is, this little virus has been in the news a lot recently due to the relatively new vaccine: Gardasil.

Gardasil protects against 4 of the 30 strains of HPV. Although this may seem like a small amount, it is important to note that two of the strains Gardasil prevents are responsible for around 75 percent of cervical cancer cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the other two strains prevented by Gardasil account for almost 90 percent of genital warts cases in both men and women.

I remember when the vaccine first came out about four years ago. I was a senior in high school, and I had just gotten out of my annual doctor’s appointment when my mom showed me a brochure. We talked about it, openly and honestly. We discussed the benefits of me receiving a vaccine that could prevent a life-threatening illness, and from there we did some more research. My mother and I came to the conclusion that getting the Gardasil vaccine would be worthwhile and beneficial, so we made the first appointment. Everything seemed to make sense to me.

I quickly learned however, that not everyone was on board with this particular vaccine. Medical professionals recommend that a child receives the vaccine around age 11-12, before entering middle school.

The reasoning is that the vaccine will be much more effective if it is administered before the child is sexually active. However, many parents are worried that giving the vaccine at such an early age will encourage promiscuity. This idea seems to be based on the notion that only people who engage in risky sexual behavior will contract the disease, but that just isn’t true. Anyone can contract an STD whether he or she has had sex with one person or 10 people. The fact of the matter is, there may be no way to know whether or not your partner has HPV. They might not even know they have it, as it is one of the STDs that often does not produce any symptoms.

In fact, this very situation happened to one of my closest friends. The man she is in a relationship with had no idea he was infected with HPV until my friend went in to have her pap test. Precancerous cells were found on her cervix, which lead to the discovery that she was infected with HPV. This in turn led to the discovery that her boyfriend was also infected. My friend had to have these cells burned off with a laser, and now has to have a pap test done every six months instead of every year. Thankfully, she is one of the lucky few that caught the disease early. Had she waited any longer, my friend would probably have cancer right now. Or worse, she could be dead.

Although women are in the most danger when it comes to the effects of HPV, men should also be vaccinated. Like the previous story illustrates, it is highly possible for someone to unknowingly have HPV and therefore spread it to a partner. Health professionals are urging men to be vaccinated so that they do not spread HPV to others, as well as to prevent genital warts.

Vaccines have been a part of American medical care for years. Just because a vaccine prevents a certain kind of illness does not mean it will cause people to engage in behavior that will cause it. I haven’t seen anyone be less careful about washing hands after a flu shot. Bottom line: the HPV vaccine is highly beneficial to the health of men and women everywhere. If you haven’t already, give it some serious consideration. Who knows, you could be saving someone’s life.

—Leah Hirsch is an Iowa State U. senior in child, adult and family services.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of violence. I repeatedly quit football and wrestling in high school because I couldn’t find the necessary aggression within me, and I much preferred cross-country — a gentle yet competitive sport full of exploration and focus on the self.

But there are some who are just the opposite. They revel in the current trendy sport of choice: mixed-martial arts fighting. Words like “fear,” “danger,” “pain” and “courage” continually raise their heads in justification of this hobby, but I think proponents often miss a few points by not distinguishing between several key ideas, those being conflict, aggression, violence and choice.

Too often, people see these terms as synonyms. Thing is, they’re not. Let’s go through the list one-by-one, shall we?

Now, as anyone schooled in rudimentary literary education can tell you, conflict is all but required in books, plays, film, even songs; and yes, video games, which is what I’ll be focusing on. What is not required, is aggression and violence.

Conflict is quite simply an opposition, a state of incompatibility. When we’re presented with the problem that our princess is in another castle, we have conflict. We also have conflict when rogue agents of FoxHound seek to activate a walking death-mobile, and when we are speeding down a winding mountain road in a desperate grab for first place.

Aggression is motivation; aggression is our purpose in pursuing the goals that have created conflict. In the above examples, our goals are to rescue the princess, to stop an act of terrorism and to win a race.

These goals are incompatible with the game parameters, which are inherently designed to obstruct our paths.

Similarly, an MMA fight is little but a constructed set of rules and parameters: Make your opponent submit through the use of combat.

That’s where my argument differs from the advocates of MMA fighting: the subject of violence.

Although I’ve seen the word violence used to describe a great many things, let’s limit it, for sake of argument, to intentionally bringing physical harm to either the environment or the beings that inhabit it.

MMA constricts the participant to violence. There’s no way to win but to, as my wrestling coach used to say, “bring on the pain train.”

Likewise, there are plenty of games where at least some violence is a necessity. You can’t win a Slayer match if you don’t kill the enemy. You can’t save Princess Peach without dumping Bowser into the lava – or spitting fireballs. You can’t stop Metal Gear without destroying it.

What is arguably better about video games is that, particularly in this generation, designs are branching out. In “Metal Gear Solid 4,” you couldn’t earn an extremely large share of the trophies if you killed any enemies. In “Mass Effect,” possessing the necessary Paragon or Renegade points often allows players to navigate otherwise-deadly territory.

Choice is our greatest asset, both inside and outside of video games.

We can choose what our goals are, how to pursue them and what actions we will and won’t take in accordance with our own morality.

MMA fighters choose to scrape their flesh and bruise their knuckles. They don’t have to.

Similarly, we can choose to remain in the realm of shooters and hack-n-slash titles. But we don’t have to. We can demand and support games and developers that offer us exactly what we possess in real-life: choice.

– This column appears courtesy of Sophie Prell’s blog, “G3 – A Girl’s Guide to Gaming.”

Students may have a tough time finding their way across Morrill Road without the 5-foot Cys there to direct them.

Two of the colorful signs, meant to help pedestrians navigate the construction on Morrill Road, have been broken and one stolen.

Angie Solberg, facilities, planning and management, worked to create the $750 Cys.

One sign had previously been broken twice, but was replaced with fiberglass covering in hopes that would keep vandals away.

The signs are made out of plywood and metal, and Nancy Surprenant, facilities, planning and management, said she is unsure of how the vandals broke the signs.

She said they may just be hitting them or using vehicles.

Surprenant said that before installing more they will look at ways to make them a little more vandal proof.

Iowa State U. students are voicing their opinions through voting at primaries.

It seems not much attention is paid to the primaries by most students, compared to the presidential elections that take place every four years. Still some students at Iowa State are choosing to vote in this year’s primary.

Jeremy Freeman, freshman in animal ecology and member of the ISU Republican Club, has already voted. For Freeman, every year is important to go out and vote, and he wishes more students would vote in the primaries.

“It’s sad that a lot of people our age don’t vote. They should start at an early age to have a voice in what is going on, not just when they are 30 or 40,” Freeman said.

Freeman believes it is important to vote in the primaries because the candidate that wins will be the one that runs in the actual election. So it is crucial to pick the candidates that represent the issues that mean the most to you.

The issues Freeman thought were the most important are the economy, at both the state and national level, and national security.

Adam Kenworthy, senior in English and member of the ISU Democrats, also feels like the economy is a big issue, as well as education. For Kenworthy, these issues are central to college students, with state budget affecting the budgets of college universities.

Kenworthy said there is no set reason why students don’t vote in the primaries, but a lot of different factors.

“There is a certain amount of apathy, where they feel there is no point in voting or they feel like their one vote doesn’t count. Or they just don’t understand how the process works,” Kenworthy said.

Whatever the reason, Kenworthy thinks voting is still a civic duty everyone should partake in.

“It’s just as important to vote in the primaries as it is to vote in November,” Kenworthy said.

Attention, Fred Glass: The IU baseball team has finished with a winning record three consecutive years and advanced to the Big Ten Tournament three years in a row for the first time in team history. I realize you just christened Cook Hall, but if there’s any team on campus that deserves a new facility based on recent performance and not just reputation, it’s the baseball team.

The best way to keep up the momentum backing the baseball program would be a new stadium. I like the 59-year-old Sembower Field; don’t get me wrong. But I think we can do better than the 2,250 seating capacity, which fills up more often than one might think.

At the very least, adding some seats could help create a larger fan base while protecting at least a few cars from foul balls. (Really, why would you park your car there at this point, or drive down Fee Lane during a game?)

Despite the fact that the men’s basketball team has finished with a combined record of 16-46 the past two seasons, it was given a beautiful new workout facility. Going 16-46 while Butler makes it to the National Championship game isn’t going to convince anyone to come here.

If you need further proof, take a look at some of the players who left when Kelvin Sampson did, such as Armon Bassett (who led Ohio University to an upset of Georgetown in this year’s tournament) and Jordan Crawford (who led Xavier to the Sweet Sixteen). But this is IU basketball, the school’s — and arguably the state’s — premier sport. It must return to prominence.

I am all for Cook Hall, as I believe it was a necessary move to help the team land big-time recruits.

But while basketball earned a new facility with its reputation and revenue-generating ability, IU baseball has earned the right by winning. Coach Tracy Smith has been doing a good job recruiting, landing talented hitters like Josh Lyon, Micah Johnson  and Big Ten Player of the Year and conference Triple Crown winner Alex Dickerson. Eight of the incoming 2011 recruits are pitchers, meaning Smith is addressing the team’s well-documented pitching woes.

The program is for real and should be rewarded as such. Maybe we don’t have a donor like Alex Rodriguez, who gave $3.9 million to renovate the University of Miami’s stadium, renaming it “Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.” But hey, if and when last season’s catcher and current White Sox farmhand Josh Phegley makes it to The Show, maybe he’ll help IU open “Josh Phegley Park at Sembower Field.”

I get asked the same questions in every job interview: Can you use Microsoft Office? How are you with Adobe software? What do you know about social media?

As a young, Internet-savvy college student, I’m pretty comfortable with such topics. It’s the way of the future, after all, and I intend to go into the workforce with the right skills. Every day, companies are realizing the potential the Web offers them and are doing their best to capitalize on it.

Some are getting it right, and some are doing it wrong.

Over the past couple of years, it’s become increasingly apparent that, of the two major political parties, one in particular has no idea what it is doing when it comes to the Internet.

That party is the GOP.

Take, for example, the 2008 presidential campaign. It was during the summer of 2008 that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., looking to capitalize on the youth vote, released a video called “McCain Cribs Exclusive: The Straight-Talk Express.”

This four-and-a-half-minute Republican romp led supporters through the campaign bus’s hip features — flat-screen TVs and 22-inch rims.

Featuring the same video editing techniques as the MTV original, the video featured hip-hop beats and was narrated by a young urban staff member.

The embarrassment of that didn’t stop Republicans from trying to reach an Internet-savvy crowd.

After McCain lost the presidential election, the Republican National Committee decided to try its hand at getting to know the younger generation.

So the committee revamped its website, dressing the American flag with hydraulics and showcasing a blog written by party Chairman Michael Steele called “What Up.”

This approach was mocked relentlessly on “The Daily Show” and did nothing to improve the party’s image.

Fast-forward to the present day. You have a Republican party desperate to clean house in the midterm elections, but it needs a platform, something that captures the sentiments of a nation and pushes a conservative agenda.

So, in one of the party’s less brilliant moments, it devised a website called “America Speaking Out.”Modeled after popular user-generated content sites such as Reddit and Digg, it allows users to upload their ideas for a new policy agenda. These ideas are then voted up or down, the idea being that the best proposals will have the most votes.

That, of course, has not been the case.If Republicans understood anything about the Internet, they would realize it’s a dark, anonymous place where rules are not respected.

While some good patriots might have used the site to express their conservative ideas, many others ran amok on the message board, spewing both senseless nonsense and liberal ideology.

Reviewing the Republicans’ latest efforts to go mainstream, I’m more than a little disheartened.

Next time, they should check their efforts at social media with a college intern or an adolescent son. Maybe then their efforts wouldn’t blow up so royally.

The ongoing battle over whether to site the first biomass incinerator plant in Indiana doesn’t seem like it will end anytime soon.

Liberty Green Renewables, LLC, an Indiana-based company, made a proposal in January 2009 to build a 28-megawatt facility in Crawford, Ind., a rural community 64 miles south of Bloomington and a popular destination for canoe enthusiasts.

However, partly because of hometown opposition, Liberty Green has yet to break ground.

The two sides voiced their thoughts and concerns last week during a county commissioners’ meeting meant to set guidelines for an industrial license to operate within Crawford County.

However, no specific guidelines were agreed upon, and the next step in this process will be a public meeting June 29.

“The county commissioners have a big job in front of them,” said Larry Ott, a partner with Liberty Green who was in attendance at last week’s meeting. “Essentially, they have to make a law that will protect their citizens but also bring in business.”
Liberty Green spokespeople have claimed the biomass plant will stimulate the local economy and create jobs. Terrance Naulty, a partner with Liberty Green, said an average of 100 skilled construction workers would be hired, with the peak construction period creating 175 jobs.

If the plant becomes operational, 25 full-time positions would be available on-site, along with an additional 30 indirect jobs. These indirect positions would focus on collection and transportation of the woody biomass fuel burned at the incinerator plant, Naulty said.

However, opponents of the plan worry that local residents won’t be adequately qualified for some, if not all, of the positions made available if the plant opens.
Naulty said although he feels there are many skilled craftsmen living in Crawford County, he couldn’t specify how many jobs will go to local residents if the plant does eventually open.

“Liberty Green can’t at this time provide a definitive breakdown of where the employees will live and how many will commute from surrounding communities,” Naulty said. “However, it is likely that there will be qualified Crawford County residents for almost all positions. Liberty Green will hire the most qualified applicants.”

Gordon Smith is the owner of Cave Country Canoes on Main Street, in the hub of Milltown. Smith said that on the busiest days of the summer, as many as 550 canoes will be rented out to navigate the Blue River, mostly by people visiting from neighboring counties and states.

With Cave Country Canoes representing a major draw for tourists, Smith said the biomass plant might have an adverse effect on his business.

“It’s the only draw for tourism here in Milltown,” Smith said. “It’s hard to say what effect the biomass plant would have, but it certainly would not be helpful to tourism, and tourism is the main business of the county.”

Concerned Citizens of Crawford County, a grassroots group opposed to the plant, formed shortly after Liberty Green proposed the facility. Concerned Citizens co-chair Cara Beth Jones said that since the proposal was made, this possibly life-changing event has been the sole focus of the group.

Since its formation, the group has collected more than 2,200 signatures for a petition against the proposed incinerator plant, which is more than double the population of Milltown, Jones said. The additional signatures come from residents in bordering counties, who might also be affected by the plant.

Residents Rodney and Linda Jenkins are active members of Concerned Citizens and live less than a mile away from the proposed plant site.

“Rodney and I have been on the phone many times and been awake at four in the morning,” Jones said. “A lot of us still work, and we go to the meetings anyway. It’s pretty much been very consuming and very stressful.”

Liberty Green has met with Milltown residents on several occasions and has also created a website, http://libertygreenrenewables.com, where people can learn more about the project, Naulty said.

Liberty Green has been working with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to gain the necessary air and water permits from the state. IDEM spokesman Rob Elstro said the timeline for each application process is different, with some permits being processed in a few weeks and others taking more than a year.

Liberty Green originally planned to obtain a state air permit earlier this year, but the company has yet to receive permits of any type from the state.

This is partly because of Milltown’s reaction and also the complex nature of the facility being proposed, which is the first of its kind in Indiana.

“We look to make sure that the permit is applicable for the facility, and we look at the permit process until it is complete,” Elstro said. “We wait until we have all of the data that is necessary and that the permit is protective of health, human and environment.”

Throughout this process, Elstro said IDEM has been working with Liberty Green to craft a permit that will allow the facility to run while at the same time abiding by state and federal regulations.

Liberty Green may begin construction if it obtains all of the appropriate state and federal permits for air and water quality from IDEM, though it’s clear Jones isn’t willing to concede anything.

“I feel that maybe this is my own little battle, and I have as much right, I believe, to be here and enjoy this environment as Liberty Green has,” Jones said.

Without voters’ help, Indiana’s Monroe County Community School Corporation could be wind up short when federal stimulus money runs out by 2012.

The MCCSC is proposing a school funding referendum for the Nov. 2 ballot to help lighten the blows it has taken to a diminishing school budget.

Members of the MCCSC said this is the best option the county has to save its public schools.

“In order for us to deliver the education we want, we need this referendum,” MCCSC board president Jeannine Butler said.

While the referendum has yet to be drafted, when it is, it will put control of the Monroe County schools back in local hands and prevent state-imposed budget cuts in the future. In 2009, school funding shifted from stable property taxes to income and sales taxes, which keep revenue fluctuating and strip the schools of their local control.

“The shift from local property taxes to sales tax to support school general funds has contributed substantially to the revenue problems,” MCCSC comptroller Tim Thrasher said. “A substantial reduction in funding has been the result … nearly $3 million for MCCSC in 2010.”

This move resulted in layoff notices for 79 certified teachers and $5.8

million in budget cuts authorized in April.  By 2012, when it can no

longer depend on the federal stimulus money, the state of Indiana could

be $2 billion short of funding for K-12, MCCSC superindentent J.T.

Coopman said.

“This crisis is just beginning, so we are expecting additional revenue cuts in 2011, and when the federal stimulus dollars used to support state funding for public schools disappears in 2012, this funding cliff could be catastrophic without a successful referendum,” Coopman said.

One of the roadblocks for the referendum is that community members will have to vote to increase taxes to help fund local schools. In 1999, the MCCSC put a referendum on the ballot that failed because of poor execution and an unclear plan for the money, said Eric Knox, a Support Our Schools member.

Support Our Schools, a Monroe County citizen group that aims to support local schools, was one of the forces behind getting the school funding referendum on the ballot. Knox said the group came together to motivate the school board and tell them to take action.

“We’ve been encouraging them for months, telling them they have to get (the referendum) wrapped up in June,” Knox said. “We’ve been scouting things out, saying ‘You need to do this’ — basically poking and prodding them.”

The MCCSC listened and is now in the process of drafting and pitching the referendum to the public. Community members will have a chance to say what they think about the referendum and decide what programs should benefit from it during four public discussions.

Two meetings have already taken place at Bloomington North and South high schools. Two more sessions are scheduled for June 9 at Bloomington High School South and June 10 at Bloomington High School North, both from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

While referendums are only valid for seven years, schools across Indiana are turning to them to help make it through these difficult times.

In May, voters in Noblesville, Speedway, Washington Township, Carmel Clay and Pike Township approved referendums that helped support building projects for schools and prevent teacher layoffs while raising taxes. On the other hand, Western Boone County Community School Corporation and Eastern Hancock Schools failed to see their referendums make it past voters.

Knox believes Monroe County can join the list of victors.

“We can pass this 2-1, but it needs to be done in a timely and sensitive way,” Knox said. “Make the referendum simple and no-nonsense. Tell them we have great schools, and now we need to restore these schools.”

One topic that might be discussed at the meetings is the cost of the referendum campaign. The MCCSC will need about $80,000 just to pay the contracts of four separate firms to help successfully construct the referendum. In addition, it hopes to raise an additional $20,000 for the campaign, bringing the total to $100,000.

MCCSC director of elementary education Cameron Rains said this money must be spent in order to ensure a successful future for today’s youth.

“Thirty years ago it was OK if students dropped out of high school,” Rains said. “There were good jobs available for those students, and they could make a good life for themselves. The world has changed, and that is no longer the case. Now, there are no good jobs for someone with only a high school degree.”

So what would happen to Monroe County schools if this referendum doesn’t pass? The answer is simple, but not sweet. More cuts would result in the loss of school programs, fewer teachers, larger class sizes and decreased quality of education.

Knox said that with the Indiana governor and superintendent of schools both anti-public education, now is the time for local communities to take action before the situation worsens.

“More cuts are going to come next year, but they’re going to wait until after the elections to do it,” Knox said. “The big issue is trying to get people connected with the school corporation and to get involved.”

Come November, the voters will have to decide whether they want to pay more taxes to help save public education.

“I think that they need to know that we fully expect that our community will step up,” Butler said. “We think our community will support education.”