Hey Neighbor
I’m Mike
I grew up in the small college town of Mount Vernon, home of Cornell College, in eastern Iowa. That place of my rearing, unwittingly to me at the time, largely shaped my career, my values, and my purpose.
From playing all kinds of sports, but especially baseball, starting initially in a neighbor’s backyard and extending to the community and school fields, I was going to be the next Jackie Robinson. Alas, my 5’6”, 100-pound frame that walked across the high school graduation stage didn’t measure up to the grander goal. It did allow me to coach the boys and girls in the area from T-ball through Babe Ruth.
At 62 years of age, I’ve lived in towns housing colleges for all but four of them. Twenty-five of those years have included our chosen location of Storm Lake. I was lucky to have been raised by trained teachers whose own career paths taught me that life’s trajectory is seldom a straight line. Mom devoted her life to early childhood and special education, spending much of it with the AEA in Cedar Rapids. I was the babysitter for kids of all sorts of abilities when she led evening programs for parents with children of varying abilities.
Dad started as a shop teacher, so you know darn well that I was taught how to change flat tires, change the oil without harming the environment, and when to call a mechanic. He taught practical skills to inmates at the reformatory in Anamosa before landing with Job Service of Iowa. He found great satisfaction helping people identify their strengths and matching them with job opportunities that allowed them to live self-sufficiently.
They taught me to hunt, fish, and play golf.
They taught me the value of everyone we encountered. They demonstrated how to be good neighbors.
They were Republicans, as were their parents. They were good people, what we like to call the salt of the earth.
Things changed during the Reagan years, just as I was about to embark on my collegiate career at Simpson College. The state and federal government decided helping people on welfare to find jobs wasn’t important. Dad had to move away for a time just to keep earning a salary with hopes he could help me with tuition costs.
I became the first Frantz in my lineage to register as a Democrat. Seeing that the values they held dear and had taught me were better supported by the Democrats, my parents soon followed, as did my younger brothers as they came of age.
Raised by educators and married to a college professor now for 39 years, and having spent my entire professional career working in the fields of admissions, financial aid, and marketing, you can bet that education is at the top of my list of priorities.
In my formative years, Iowa was always ranked first or second in educational outcomes. We are now 13th and moving in the wrong direction. We must invest in our future; in the children we educate. Great teacher pay coupled with superior expectations is critical to attracting and retaining educators. College tuition must be affordable and reachable to all Iowans without incurring staggering debt.
We sacrificed and were privileged to send our daughter, now 35, to private schools from preschool through her master’s degree. That was our choice. We didn’t expect or receive financial support from any government entity. Taxpayers weren’t asked to fund her private education. One-third of Iowa’s annual budget deficit is driven by the decision to use tax revenue to pay families to send their children to private schools that can choose who they admit and have no accountability for outcomes. I oppose this.
I’m just a generation removed from the family farm, one where Grandpa Frantz raised hogs and crops. Weeklong summer vacations to “help” him on the land were eagerly anticipated. I was heartbroken when, in my early twenties and incapable of acquiring financial backing, the century farm was sold to cover the costs of my paternal grandparents’ long-term care. That financial situation recurred with my own father’s Alzheimer’s care and subsequent financial destruction of their hard-earned resources. Thank goodness, my mother can still receive support through Medicaid, something I will fight to retain for our citizens in need.
We’ve been foster parents, several exchange students enjoyed us as their host family, and safe haven for friends’ children. Our philanthropic interests follow the needs of society: food banks, winter clothing drives, civil rights protections, education, and the First Amendment. We fight for equal rights and what is right.
Finally, my volunteer work in retirement has focused on individuals faced with natural disaster: home fires, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes. I show up on their worst days with emotional support, to marshal resources to assist in their recovery. Just as I plan to do in my role as state senator, I will make sure you are seen and heard and supported. I plant hope that tomorrow will be better than today. It really is about neighbors helping neighbors.
My vision is an Iowa that again ranks at the top of educational outcomes, where cancer rates are among the lowest in the country, where people raised here want to stay within our borders and those from outside the state choose to make Iowa home. Iowa has been good to me and I want it to again become good for others.
