Why is a tiny Iowa high school getting visits from major presidential candidates?
Because the students keep asking.
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton became the third presidential candidate to visit Keota High School in Keota, Iowa. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, and Rick Santorum, a Republican, have also visited. The school has just 119 students, according to the Department of Education.
The high school hosts grades seven through 12, averaging only 20 students per grade. The student-teacher ratio would make many schools jealous: 9 to 3.
The school isn’t particularly diverse or racially representative of Iowa, let alone the rest of the country. Only three of the students there are Hispanic, while three others are categorized as “two or more races.” That makes 95 percent of the student population white.
A quarter of the students are eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program.
So why did Clinton go?
A few students from a Keota sociology class kept showing up at her campaign events and inviting her. “I don’t know how any times you did it but you really made an impression on me,” Clinton told three girls from the class during her visit. “Anyone that has worked as hard as you have, I’m coming,” Clinton recalled telling the girls at a previous event. Students in the sociology class have also been tweeting #KeotaHopesForHillary since September, in hopes of catching the campaign’s attention.
But for students, inviting presidential candidates isn’t just about possibly rubbing elbows with the next president.
“The students want to talk to Clinton about the trends driving down rural populations and endangering small schools,” reports Tony Leys with the Des Moines Register.
Clinton lamented that the state government did not give Keota Community School District more funding, but acknowledged there’s not much she could do as president for the school. “The federal government doens’t have a whole lot to do with this, it is mostly state and local decision making,” Clinton said, noting about 10 percent of nationwide K-12 education funding comes from the federal government. She also spoke in favor of diversifying rural economies.
The school district has only two schools: The high school and an elementary school, with 222 students spread across pre-K through sixth grade.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, joined Clinton on her visit.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
