Cooperative Living January 2016 - 19

A
s a native of rural Patrick County, I
can tell you that though my feet
have taken me to plenty of places
across the country and around the world,
my heart has never left rural Virginia.
During my years as a legislator, Attorney
General and Governor, and more recently as
an international trade and aviation lawyer,
and as a director of a public policy center at
the University of Virginia, I have witnessed
how trade, technology and globalization can
affect our lives, our economy and our
country. Increasingly, education is the
engine that drives the American economy.
Education is the " coin of the realm, " and it
will determine the quality of our lives and
our economic future.
So, the challenge for us - our
country, our commonwealth and
especially our rural areas - is how
to respond? Cheap wages, low taxes
and physical labor no longer
guarantee economic growth and
development. If so, Bangladesh
would be an economic giant and
rural areas everywhere would be
thriving.
So, let me put it simply: a rural area's
inability or indifference to improving its
educational level will ensure its own demise.
A CULTURAL CHALLENGE
Education is no longer for just the
children. Learning must be life-long for all
of us. Education must become part of every
public discussion and decision. It must
permeate the consciousness of the citizenry
at large. It must be seen for what it is - the
key to our future.
In rural Virginia, it will take a while to
prepare for that future, unfortunately.
Here's why:
Too many rural counties have too many
people lacking a high school education.
That was once understandable, even
acceptable, especially in the rural economies
of agriculture or mining, or timber, tobacco
and textiles, and even fishing, but not today.
Too many rural communities do not
send enough of their high school graduates
to college or create coherent and comprehensive
workforce programs for those who
choose not to go to college but want to
pursue a vocation with marketable skills.
These things are important. They make a
difference in getting the attention of major
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A CALL TO ACTION
That is why the Virginia Foundation for
Community College Education is working
with - and supporting the efforts of -
Virginia's Community Colleges to improve
the high school education rates in rural
areas and to increase the number of people
attaining a community college's associate
degree or a postsecondary credential. For
far too long, rural Virginia's educational
numbers have been moving in the wrong
direction.
There is an arc that begins on and
sweeps down Virginia's Eastern Shore,
across Southern and Southwest Virginia,
and up the mountain range towards
Winchester. It is a stylized horseshoe area
that comprises 75 percent of our geography
and contains more than 2 million people.
If it were a separate state, it would rank
50th in the nation in educational
attainment, tied for dead last with
Mississippi and West Virginia.
employers looking for rural areas and small
towns in which to locate a business. They
make a difference in determining the future
viability of many of our charming and
historic towns and villages scattered across
our countryside.
Our prosperity requires a sweeping
change in the way education is viewed,
lifelong in scope for all of us, even though
that requires politically difficult decisions
and requires significant financial
investments often beyond the comfort
levels of those in public life.
That may surprise some people. It
should be cause for alarm, a call to action,
especially since the rest of Virginia would
rank number two in the country.
LEVERAGING WHAT WORKS
There is a growing number of us who
are committed to this foundation, our
community colleges and our shared " Rural
Virginia Horseshoe Initiative. " It is a 10year
plan with two goals: cut in half the
number of Virginians without a high
school education and double the number
of Virginians with a postsecondary
credential. Straightforward and simple to
grasp, don't you think?
So, why not do something?!
Virginia's Community Colleges
are uniquely poised and capable to
confront this challenge in a way no
other organization can. Fourteen of
Virginia's 23 community colleges
are located within the footprint of
the Rural Horseshoe. Seven of those
14 are now engaged in the first
wave of this program, the pilot
project. The rest will follow soon
behind.
The strategies engaged to pursue our
goals have a history of success. One of the
keys includes full-time Career Coaches,
community college employees who work
inside high schools to help students and
their parents create personal career and
college plans, and who will help market the
local G.E.D. or adult education programs
to those who have not finished their high
school work.
So, we need you to join us and help
Virginia's Community Colleges and the
Virginia Foundation for Community
College Education meet their 10-year goals.
Already, individuals and companies far
and wide are stepping forward to support
the financial challenges of implementing
this plan. We need more for this important
work of ensuring that Virginia lives up to
the promise implied in the name
commonwealth! 
Editor's Note: Virginia's consumer-owned
electric cooperatives are actively supporting
the Rural Horseshoe Initiative in various ways,
including establishment of the Power Line
Worker Training School at Southside Virginia
Community College.
January 2016 | Cooperative Living | 17
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Cooperative Living January 2016

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