Rural Matters

This special episode was recorded immediately following Rural Education Week, a weeklong series of events on rural issues, developed by graduate students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. John chats with three of those students — Julia Cunningham, Morgan Christopher, and Elizabeth, Castro — talking about many of the issues discussed during the week, including advancing rural education; new opportunities and challenges; diversity; identity; and arts programming. These students also have formed an organization, called the HGSE Rural Educators Alliance, to continue to advance the causes and concerns discussed during Rural Education Week, including new initiatives that could be developed at Harvard and similar institutions, such as a Rural Fellows Program.

John chats with Jessica Golden, Executive Director of the Foundation for Rural Service, and Josh Seidemann, a policy specialist at the NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, which represents about 850 community-based broadband providers who started as telephone companies and now offer broadband, Internet and wireless services to rural communities. These broadband communities are more sociologically driven and “go where others don’t or won’t go” in representing almost 40 percent of the land mass of the United States. There’s a rural-rural divide in broadband, according to Seidemann, which centers on differences between publicly traded broadband companies serving rural areas with larger densities and smaller, community-based firms that serve less populated areas. FRS is a non-profit whose mission is to advance the quality of life in American life, offering programs in economic development, including grants on telemedicine and opioid initiatives. FRS also recently released a significant study, A Cyber Economy, the Transactional Value of the Internet in Rural America, which found that rural and urban areas had similar percentages of Internet business usage (www.frs.org). This finding helps to justify investing in broadband expansion for homes in rural areas. According to Golden, engaging youth is vital to the future, and FRS is now involved heavily on this issue. The guests also discussed the Smart Rural Community Initiative (www.ntca.org/smart), which includes important programs, such as telemedicine offerings, for rural America.

John talks with Andrew Moe, Associate Dean of Admissions and Director of Access & Programming at Swarthmore College, about the importance of providing access to and inclusion of rural students on college campuses, including Swarthmore. Geographic diversity and the rural perspective are extremely significant in providing additional viewpoints and perspectives, according to Moe. Many rural schools do not offer advanced STEM courses. In addition, Moe says, in many rural schools there’s less access to school counselors and fewer role models. Moe. Swarthmore is trying to help increase access to rural students through technological solutions, such as website presentations to school counselors as well as an all-expenses paid “fly-in” program that include outreach to rural areas. Swarthmore partners with a number of organizations to increase access among rural students, including College Greenlight, which sponsored this episode of Rural Matters. College Greenlight was launched in 2012 to combat the significant underrepresentation of first generation, low-income and minority students on college campuses across the country.

John talks with Rob Mahaffey, Executive Director of the Rural School and Community Trust, which recently signed a partnership agreement with AASA, the School Superintendents Association. Sixty percent of AASA members represent small or rural school districts. John and Rob discussed a variety of important rural education issues, including the U.S. Department of Education's preliminary report on what actions can be taken to improve how it considers the unique needs of rural schools and rural school districts as it develops and implements its policies and programs. Mahaffey called the preliminary report “incomplete,” noting that the Rural Trust made a number of suggestions on how to improve the report to be more aligned with the congressional mandate. Rob also hoped that the final report would include a more robust stance on research in the rural space. John and Rob also discussed the Trump Administration’s FY 2019 budget request of education and the impact of the new tax law on public education.

John talks with Selena Culbertson (prevention coordinator at Dickenson County Behavioral Health Services), Seth Baker (Commonwealth attorney), Jason Dotson (from the recovery community), and Amy Duncan (VA Office of the Attorney General), all of whom are members of the Dickenson County Community Partners for Prevention Coalition. Dickenson County, in southwestern Virginia, is first in the state and sixth in the country in overdose deaths from opioids and related drugs.  The coalition is pushing out its message through social media (including cell phone messaging) and a series of billboards, in a campaign called Kindness Matters, which, among other things, tries to remove the stigma of opioid addiction. The coalition also works closely with school administrators, establishing food and hygiene pantries. The opioid crisis in the county has resulted in many grandparents raising grandchildren. A key to success: Don’t shame an addict; instead, show compassion. For helpful resources, visit www.stopsubstanceabuse.com

John chats up Katie Rock and Lu Nelsen, policy associates with the Center for Rural Affairs in Iowa and Nebraska, respectively. One focus of the discussion was a recent study published by the Center, called Generation & Delivery: The Economic Impact of Transmission Infrastructure in Rural Counties (www.cfra.org/GenerationAndDelivery). The report looks at how various states have managed finances and tax revenues dealing with expansion of transmission capabilities and the burgeoning power of renewables. While the benefits of wind and solar are well known and understood, it’s harder to comprehend the benefits of an infrastructure option, such as transmission lines. But those benefits are demonstrable as well, Rock and Nelsen point out, if counties are able to secure tax revenues and use it to decrease the taxes paid by property owners or implement conservation measures, just to cite a couple of examples. The study included several cases studies, illuminating the economics of renewable options and also delineating the upside revenues emanating from the expansion and updating of transmission lines. Finally, the opening up of energy options clearly also creates multiple job opportunities for rural residents.

John has a lively discussion with two representatives from the Ohio Small and Rural Collaborative — Ryan Rismiller, at-large representative for OSRC and a high school principal at the Graham Local Schools, and Kirk Koennecke. executive director of OSRC and superintendent of the Graham Local Schools. More than two-thirds of the schools in Ohio are considered “rural,” with a host of challenges, including broadband, hunger, and generational poverty. The collaborative started as a small, nonpartisan group and developed into an organization that strives to harness digital education, high-quality professional development, STEM education, and other opportunities, including its partnership with Learning Blade, and is an Ohio affiliate of NREA. OSRC is continuing to look at ways for its members, including teachers and administrators, to network online regarding leadership, assessment, and instruction, and curriculum planning. OSRC will be putting on a literacy summit, which it hopes will place a spotlight on this important issue. You can follow OSRC on Twitter and dialogue with others in the rural community on a Twitter chat, #OSRCchat. This episode was sponsored by A Pass Education, www.apasseducation.com      

John has a lively discussion with Jim Dachos, director of education partnerships at The Virtual High School (VHS), a non-profit organization in Massachusetts. VHS works with more than 700 schools and has a catalogue of about 200 courses, which includes AP offerings and courses for middle schools. The VHS model differs from competitors in several ways: The organization collaborates with rural schools by freeing up teachers to provide online instruction, and, in return, providing discounts to schools. VHS also offers rural schools a collaborative model that enables both the school and VHS to establish more of a classroom setting rather than simply online learning. The majority of these partnerships are in the Northeast, but VHS is an international organization, with partnerships across the United States and abroad, including China.  VHS works with several consortia, such as the Western Maine Educational Collaborative, which provides additional buying resources for rural schools.

John has an extremely informative discussion with Tom Morris, Associate Administrator for Rural Health in the Human Resources and Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Rural Americans are dying at an earlier age and at a higher rate than urban Americans, notes Morris, and also are victims disproportionately of “excess deaths,” such as certain chronic diseases and opioid addiction, which could be prevented through timely intervention. Education and better access to health care, however, can improve outcomes, Morris explains. You just can’t take an urban model and apply it to rural areas, he stresses. Check out the Rural Community Health Gateway (ruralhealthinfo.org), and you’ll find models that work in rural health. And Morris’s office is combining funds for grass-roots efforts at improving health. Finally, the good news: the health care sector is a high-growth employment area, so rural areas need to work with high schools and colleges to take advantages of this development.

John chats up Randy Smith, whose organization, the Rural Community College Alliance, represents 2/3 of all community colleges in the United States, and 1/3 of all community college students in the country. Smith described some of the challenges facing rural community colleges, including the commute to the college, technology, and economic obstacles. Despite these challenges, rural colleges have a huge impact on local economic development. Funding formulas for rural colleges are all over the map today, due to state budgets and financial issues. In many states, funding has been substantially reduced in recent years. The most important element for rural colleges: recruiting and retaining students, in times when the number of high school graduates is actually declining, especially in rural areas. Today, most rural colleges have dorms and offer sports opportunities.