Dave Franker: You Gotta Love This Guy!

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Dave Franker with supporters

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Dave Franker,
running for Congress in Iowa's 2nd District (Iowa City, Cedar Rapids),
has quite a reputation for getting results on top of it.



While on
the Iowa City school board, Dave was the person who STARTED the discussion in
Iowa about the overdose of junk food in our public schools (summer,
'02). He brought U of Iowa endocrinologists, pediatric dentists and
nutritionists to the table — prompting Mr. Craig Schoenfeld, the soft
drink and tobacco industry's top lobbyist in Iowa, to make twice
monthly trips to Iowa City for several months for fear of what Dave
would reveal/insist upon (news coverage was significant in the Des
Moines Register and the Cedar Rapids Gazette).



A man
after our own hearts, once the ICCSD had passed a bond referendum for
their schools ($39 million, the 2nd largest ever in Iowa history), Dave
Franker invited the experts and helped to educate the board and
administration about sustainable design and renewable energy. As a
result, the first “High Performance” (a technical, architectural term
for “green”) school ever in Iowa will be built in North Liberty. They
broke ground two weeks ago: geothermal heating/cooling, green strips,
daylighting, and they've measured the wind with an anemometer for the
past 9 months to determine if a wind turbine is now indicated.



Another
effort that Dave Franker led was the part of the bond referendum to
build a new alternative high school in order to provide opportunity for
all and respect for those who had not been given the respect that they
deserved. The current facility is woefully inadequate. This month,
ground will be broken on a $3.5 million alternative high school to be
located one block from Kirkwood Community College with collaborations
forthcoming.



Finally,
in October, '03, the Iowa City area held a community wide conference
called, “Removing the Barriers to Learning: A Community Challenge.” The
conference was Dave's idea — to bring all social service providers,
governmental entities, law enforcement, and medical and dental
providers together to address those barriers to learning with which
children come to school. As a result, Johnson County has received one
of just nine grants nationwide to build better communities for youth,
$100,000 per year for five years.