PCRD

Baby Boomers Migration and Rural America

A very large cohort of population, the so called baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964 will be entering their retirement phase. In doing so, they will create migration pathways, which will affect the rural America. A recent study by the Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA, says that the baby boom migration will favor rural America because of the scenic amenities and the low cost housing. If this generation follows similar migration patterns, the rural population age 55-75 will increase by 30 percent between 2010 and 2020 according to the ERS. The baby boomers now aged between 45 and 63 is a large cohort of 83 million people, almost a quarter of the total U.S. population. Historically, this will be the largest cohort going out of the labor force. They have demonstrated affinity for the small town and rural areas. Such migration patterns will bring significant socio-economic changes and opportunities for the small towns and rural areas. Read the article and related research here

National Defense Spending Affects Rural Americ

Posted by Don Koverman

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has published an article by Chad Wilkerson and Megan Williams about how the continued increase in the national defense spending is affecting the economies of rural America. This increased investment is targeted to rural areas, such as the West Crane Base and Camp
Attebury, that contain some of our country’s largest military installations. Their research highlights the recent boom in rural defense spending, the nation’s near-term defense spending plans and the long-term role the military will play in rural economies.  To view the full article go to here. To review the latest newsletter of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City go here.

Survey Results Refect the Huge Diversity within Rural America

The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire recently surveyed 8,000 residents in four very different rural settings: amenity rich; chronically poor; declining resource dependent; and transitional. Areas of inquiry included: economic changes and challenges; migration and demographic changes;  religion, trust and civil institutions; environment, natural resources and energy; and infrastructure and changing populations.

The variation in views, attitudes and opinions across these four different types of rural areas is very striking and most interesting. See the full report here

Rural Economies are as Dynamic as Suburban and Urban

A study by the Small Business Administration revealed some unexpected results that bode well for rural America. The authors' central finding is that the differences in the rate of establishment births and closures between rural, suburban, and urban areas, while statistically significant, is in fact quite small.  That is, general business dynamics are not a function of geographic area.  Read more here and here.

Strengthening Rural and Regional Economies

Many innovative policies and programs for strenthening rural and regional economies are underway in Canada, Europe and the U. S. The most successful ones focus on four elements: innovation and technology development; community economic development and the social economy; and, community development and capacity building. A Review of Rural and Regional Development Policies and Programs provide many interesting insights and analysis. It is available here.

Meeting the Challenge of Rural Broadband

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have released a report on rural broadband. Although the focus is on Pennsylvania, the researchers believe that their conclusions provide some insights into the challenges of bringing broadband to rural areas nationwide. The researchers emphasize that there is no single policy solution to increasing broadband penetration in rural areas. You can read more the report here and download a copy of the report here.

At the same time the National Governors Association has released a report on what states are doing to accelerate broadband deployment. You can read more about the report here. You can download a copy of the report here.

RUrbanism: Sustainable Integration of Rural and Urban Communities

Posted by Indraneel Kumar

Climate change, green house gas emissions, and energy and food securities are highly debated and recognized issues globally. What will cities of the year 2100 will look like? How shall we plan and design for sustainable communities 100 years from now? The International Gas Union held a worldwide competition in 2003 and one of the three award winning projects was Goa 2100 planning based on RUrbanism or rural-urban sustainability framework .

The Goa 2100 was recognized for using sustainability concepts such as ecological footprint, material life-cycle analysis, optimal densities and built-form analysis, and time-budget analysis into planning and designing a city. The planners found that based on availability of renewable, recycling capacity and other resources within the region, Goa should have densities between 150 and 300 persons per hectare and buildings should be six-stories high. By the way, our neighbor, Vancouver, British Columbia won the 1st Place in this competition. The cities (PLUS) award winning entry involved 500 experts and 30 cities across Canada in a 2-year long planning and design effort. Read more here. Planning for sustainability requires innovative approaches and these projects reflect those ideas. 

Meeting the Challenge of Failing High Schools

Across the country, our high schools are failing. The Alliance for Excellent Education has outlined some of the costs of this failure. So, for example:

• 70 percent of eighth graders can’t read at grade level, and a mere 3 percent of all eighth graders read at an advanced level.
• Though fourth grade reading scores have risen in the past few years, America's eighth and twelfth grade scores have remained essentially flat since the 1970s.

Download a fact sheet here.

According to the Alliance, In Indiana:

• If the nearly 25,000 high school dropouts from the Class of 2007 had earned their diplomas instead of dropping out, Indiana’s economy would have seen an additional $6.4 billion in wages over these students’ lifetimes.
• If the high school dropouts who currently head households in Indiana had earned their diplomas, the state’s economy would have benefited from an additional $1.6 billion in wealth accumulated by families.
• If all of the students in Indiana who are estimated to drop out of school this year earn diplomas instead, the state could save more than $284 million in health care costs over the course of those young people’s lifetimes.

Indiana spends over $40 million each year to provide community college remediation education for recent high school graduates who did not acquire the basic skills necessary to succeed in college or at work. Learn more.

In rural America, we have a wonderful opportunity to re-invent our high schools. Read the inspiring story of one rural school district in Indiana.

At Purdue, we worked with Deb Howe, the superintendent, to help her realize her dream of a more dynamic rural community energized by a new approach to high school. You can read more about her initiative to re-invent high school in Rochester, IN here.

Only 64% of the ninth graders graduate in Mississippi. Mississippi has set a target to reduce the dropout rate by 50% in five years. Read more.

The dropout problem is gaining more attention recently. For example, Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star launched a series on the issue yesterday exploring social promotion. Read more.

Last week, the Detroit Free Press outlined some solutions. Read more.

At the same time, hearings are taking place across the state to address the issue. Read more.

South Carolina is addressing the issue by connecting businesses more closely to high schools. Read more.

Last month, AT&T announced a $100 million effort to reduce dropouts. Read more.

What would Indiana look like in five years if we set the same target as Mississippi: Cut dropouts by 50%?

Here are some basic resources to learn more about reducing dropouts:

Alliance for Excellent Education
America's Promise Alliance
The Silent Epidemic report from the Gates Foundation
National Dropout Prevention Center

Self Employment in Rural America

A new report on self-employment published by the Rural Sociological Society includes some fascinating findings. For example, since 1969 the number of self-employed rural workers has expanded by 240%.....and during this same time period the number of rural wage and salary workers increased by only 61%. The full report can be found here.

‎2007 Indiana Rural Summit - Register Now!‎

Posted by Don Koverman

Have you registered for this year's 2007 Indiana Rural Summit scheduled for November 14 & 15 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Indianapolis?  This year's conference will focus on two themes:  Regional Frameworks and Wealth Creation & Retention.  Both Governor Daniels and Lt. Governor Becky Skillman will be participating as well as national speakers including: Steve Gunderson, from the Council on Foundations, Chuck Fluharty, RUPRI Director of Policy Programs, John Moinaro, from the Aspen Institute, Angie Cantrell, from the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, Deborah Markley from the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and Thomas Lyons, creator of the "Entrepreneurial League System for Entrepreneurship" from City University of New York.  You can learn more about the summit and register here. www.in.gov/ocra