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Steve Flood, a senior vice president at Holmes Murphy & Associates and candidate for the Des Moines Independent Community School District board, says education needs help from the world of business.

He means that in two ways. First, there are the widely discussed problems the Des Moines district has had in managing its finances. Second, Flood contends that it’s time for business people to play a larger role in setting the curriculum so more students graduate with the skills needed in the business world.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have school board members with business experience. But an organization as large as the Des Moines school district should have enough access to auditors and lawyers to avoid major missteps.

And if family connections sometimes lead to bad dealmaking, that’s not a business question as much as a moral one.

More interesting is the question of how much direction education should take from corporations. There’s more to education than learning how to make widgets. But some marginal students would benefit from an education track with a clearly defined, practical goal.

For that reason, we like Flood’s support for a revival of Tech High School. When marketplace needs match the interests of students, that’s a flame waiting to be ignited.

It will take more than that, however, to keep everybody in school. Shockingly high dropout rates are a problem nationally, not just in Des Moines, and the bigger the city, the bigger the problem.

Statistics are hazy, but they do indicate that economic status is a key factor along with race – two descriptors that still have a strong correlation. Better education will raise up the people caught in that trap.

But stronger families and neighborhoods would make it a lot more likely that we can also improve our schools. It’s not one or the other that Des Moines needs to work on; it’s both at once.