I’m Mark Schaukowitch. I’m a former college professor turned rural technical and grant writer in Plainville, Kansas, home to three generations of my family. I boomeranged back home prior to the pandemic, thinking I would not be staying long. But as COVID entered the area, I was called to help with quite a bit of rural development work, and those calls haven’t stopped.
I’m only one person. It takes assembled, organized teams to make our rural communities able to answer the calls to develop their neighborhoods and build power. For too long, our rural communities have fought between themselves to finance projects. We have enjoyed our freedoms so much that we have forgotten how to work as a team, take care of our public resources, and enjoy our communities in the precious moments we have when we aren’t working. Rural Kansas deserves so much better.
I have witnessed how private companies in rural communities are built, only to have a market collapse and every employee lose their job. I have seen newly restored buildings in small towns fall into ruin as some algorithm purchases the building for a major company for a tax write-off—not to employ people or lift families out of poverty. And I have seen how impossible barriers are erected to keep rural communities from accessing the funding necessary to create quality jobs that sustain the population, lower property taxes, and build new housing. Consequently, our communities suffer as people leave for Colorado or Wichita.
Our rural communities are at risk of falling into ruin. But from those ruins, we can build spectacular things. Ruins have potential. Northwest Kansas, and each community therein, has potential. We just have to have the resources available to rebuild. As your representative in the legislature, I will fight to get our communities the resources they need to become something amazing. Something that we can all walk by and say, “We contributed to make that happen!” and feel a deep sense of pride that people in urban areas will never get to experience.
About Mark
To accomplish these things—to build our sense of community pride—we have to organize. We have to take risks. And we have to be proactive. This campaign is not just about electing me to fight for you in Topeka. This is about building rural power, building community power, and building the communities we want to be a part of. Join my campaign to build your community’s power and elect an advocate for your community.