Readers of this paper know all too well that rural regions of our commonwealth are in desperate need of help. For many years, elected officials on both sides of the aisle have made efforts to help rural Virginia; but for just as many years, those efforts, however well intended, have been too little, too fragmented, and, in some cases, too late. Consequently, Virginians who live in rural communities — whether in the Southside, Southwest or the Eastern Shore — are more likely to live shorter lives, face unnecessary hospitalizations, fail to complete high school and struggle to obtain employment that facilitates economic self-sufficiency.
And yet, these very same Virginians have not been given the resources needed to dramatically change their fortunes. All too often, they attend crumbling schools with high teacher vacancy rates, travel great distances to find a hospital, struggle with uneven access to broadband and live in communities that lack a sufficient tax base and necessary infrastructure. Sadly, these problems are self-reinforcing and interconnected. For example, the lack of a tax base makes it harder to fully fund rural schools, which, in turn, creates obstacles to educational success for our children. This has led to a workforce lacking the necessary credentials and makes it less likely that employers will want to come to these communities.
The result? To paraphrase the title of a recent paper examining these challenges, those who need the most, all too often get the least.
To address these persistent and longstanding challenges, we as a commonwealth need to think outside the proverbial box and look long and hard at a different approach to supporting rural Virginians.
That is why this legislative session, we will be co-sponsoring legislation directing the state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to examine the feasibility of establishing a new secretary of rural affairs for Virginia. Cardinal News has devoted a lot of recent coverage to this issue, and we think it is beyond time we moved the policy discussion forward.
It’s often assumed that representatives of different parties and different regions are divided on policy, but those who know us will not be surprised by our collaboration on this issue. With a significant portion of our communities residing in rural regions, we’ve long been familiar with their challenges. As a result, we have partnered before on efforts to improve educational resources for children in poverty and to secure economic development funds for disadvantaged communities, particularly in rural parts of the state. We understand the rich diversity of the people that live in our rural regions, and we need to put these people before party.
We should also make clear that we want a new secretary of rural affairs to have more than just an impressive sounding title. On the contrary, we want JLARC to study the feasibility of establishing a robust secretariat with a real budget, staff, authority, and oversight of existing departments within current agencies that already are focused on rural initiatives. Such a secretariat could have multiple benefits for rural Virginians.
First, a secretary of rural affairs could comprehensively address rural issues. Problems in rural communities are uniquely interconnected and require a concerted, rather than piecemeal, approach. Only a position like this, with the ability to consolidate and direct different strands of state government, can lead a coordinated effort to solve these problems.
Second, with proper authority, a secretary of rural affairs could streamline and synthesize a patchwork of different funding sources, making it easier for rural communities to seek available grants or other streams of state funding that they depend on for a range of vital services.
Third, we know that rural communities are resilient, and with the right resources can tackle many of the challenges we have outlined. By creating what will in effect be a single point of entry, a secretary of rural affairs could help strengthen and support relationships between the state and rural communities, and better identify those resources that communities need to address their specific barriers.
While some have argued against this idea, their criticisms are shortsighted, and demonstrate a limited view of what this new secretariat could accomplish. Perhaps this is due to superficial or insufficient efforts in the past characterized primarily by lip service rather than measurable results.
Similarly, those who worry that a new secretariat will infringe on the jurisdiction of other secretaries or agencies fail to understand our central point — that we need someone in state government who has exactly the kind of cross-cutting authority necessary to serve rural Virginia in a wholesale, wide-ranging manner.
None of this is to say that people have not tried, or even accomplished, important and effective initiatives to support rural communities in Virginia. It is to say, however, that much more is required to overcome the systemic issues that rural Virginians continue to face.
We also understand that our vision for a secretary of rural affairs is big and complex, which is exactly why we are proposing that JLARC study the concept first, and come back with information, recommendations, and alternative ideas, if any, to best address these needs.
It is worth remembering, though, that rural Virginians have been struggling with these big and complex problems for many years. Unless and until we meet these challenges with solutions of equal size and scope, they will persist. Now is the time to move forward in support of rural Virginians.
