This chapter discusses an innovative state public policy which has incentivized Iowa's community colleges to become the economic drivers of their region. Created in the 1983 legislation, it continues to this day to affect Iowa's rural communities and their colleges.

In 1994 the Ford Foundation launched the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) as a "national demonstration project to help community colleges in distressed regions move their people and communities toward prosperity. It challenged community colleges to become catalysts for economic development and supported aggressive efforts to increase…

School year 1980-81 completed the third year of operation for the Lohrville Career Education Model (LCEM) and the Toward Community Growth Project, a systematic attempt at exploring careers in Iowa and at inducing Iowa's youth to seek careers closer to home following high school graduation or completion of post-secondary education/training. The…

The 1979-1980 school year was the second year of operation for the Lohrville Career Education Model (LCEM) and the Toward Community Growth project, which was designed to provide rural Iowa high school students with occupational experience in their local areas in an effort to offset the out-migration of rural high school graduates and the lagging…

The Lohrville Career Education Model (LCEM) is a successful program to influence the decision of rural high school students to remain in the community after graduation and to help them examine local occupational opportunities and potential. The LCEM consists of a 7-unit course in local history, rural living, rural economy, rural attitudes,…