#Rural areas of North Carolina have a bright future, and investments should be made to help them prosper. For this purpose, the North Carolina Rural Center put forward ten strategies that should be implemented. Measurable and sustainable advancement in these will fully help realize the economic potential for rural communities and citizens. These strategies provide the foundation for success in North Carolina state.
The ten strategies include advocating for innovation in education and workforce development, stabilizing and transforming rural health care, expanding accessible and affordable high-speed fiber #broadband, improving the infrastructure of essential rural water and wastewater, expanding and upgrading the transport system across the state and natural gas infrastructure, investing in more robust entrepreneurship and #smallbusiness development systems, strengthening homegrown manufacturing, developing opportunities for agriculture and natural resources including #biotechnology and value-added food processing, enhancing regional collaboration and partnerships, and stabilizing and leveraging rural development funding, capacity building, and technical assistance.
For North Carolina to prosper in the 21st century, it is necessary to attract good educators and those with various skills to the State. Fortunately, rural North Carolina has K-12 public schools, a community college system with a broad rural presence, and strong public and private colleges and universities. These assets can build increasingly competitive communities with the capacity to secure and produce quality jobs. Strengthening community colleges, regional workforce development boards, and NCWorks will serve rural North Carolina more effectively.
Medicaid Plays a Critical Role and provides vital coverage for families in rural areas. More than half of rural children receive health coverage from Medicaid and NC Health Choice. Expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income adults would increase the chances that rural hospitals can stay open, protecting jobs, and ensuring access to health care for thousands.
Access to reliable and affordable high-speed Internet service is essential to business development, education, and day-to-day life in today’s global economy. Without it, rural North Carolina cannot benefit from advances in telemedicine, public safety, and K-12 education, including digital textbooks. Federal investments should be made in rural broadband to raise the standard speed. Current standards for federal funding require only a minimum of 10 Mbps download speed, which is low by current national means and risks putting rural communities and businesses at a severe disadvantage.
Though only a few of the ten strategies are discussed here, it is clear that if basic investments are made. It would not only improve the lives of rural citizens in North Carolina and their economy, but it would also have a positive impact statewide.
