Rural S.C. needs a lift

No one needs to tell Virginia Townsend that life in rural South Carolina isn’t all fun and front-porch friendliness.

A retired teacher who grew up in the Orangeburg County town of Holly Hill, Townsend sees residents struggle in a variety of ways: limited access to health care for strokes and heart attacks, poor children who struggle in school and adults who face long commutes to work — if they can find a job.

“As a schoolteacher, I saw deficiencies,” Townsend said. “And now that I’m retired, I still see deficiencies. I just think we can bring about change.”

Change is the mantra of those who want to be president and will be spending an increasing amount of time in the Palmetto State, home to important Democratic and Republican primaries early next year.

Change is desperately needed in rural communities, policy experts and residents say.

Indeed, rural areas in South Carolina have long fared much worse than urban areas in terms of health, poverty and employment.

The S.C. Office of Research and Statistics defines rural counties as those where the largest town has fewer than 25,000 residents. In South Carolina, 31 of 46 counties meet that description.

According to figures compiled by the Office of Research and Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, life in rural counties can be tough:

• Rural residents are 54 percent more likely to be hospitalized for clogged arteries.

• 48 percent of rural residents who are hospitalized are taken to facilities outside of the county where they live.

• The percentage of rural residents in poverty ranges from 12.7 percent in Oconee County to 32.1 percent in Allendale County. In 12 of the 31 rural S.C. counties, the percentage of residents who live in poverty is at least 20 percent. None of the 15 urban counties have poverty rates that high.

• In February, unemployment statewide was 6.1 percent. In rural counties, it ranged from 5.6 percent in Jasper County to 13.6 percent in Marion County. In 17 rural counties, the jobless rate was 9 percent. No urban county had an unemployment rate that high.

IMPROVEMENT PLANS

Improving life in rural America is a priority for a few of the presidential candidates.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican who grew up in a small Kansas town, backs a New Homestead Act that he says would combat falling rural populations. His plan would offer rewards for people who make a five-year commitment to living and working in a rural area. It would help pay off college loans and offer a $5,000 tax credit for rural first-time home buyers.

On the Democratic side, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards traveled last month to his birthplace, the Oconee County town of Seneca, to tout his Rural Recovery Act.

Edwards says his plan would increase investment in rural businesses, boost teacher pay, cap subsidies for corporate farmers and support areas that grow crops that could be used to create alternative energy sources.

Another Democrat, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, has a plan that promises some of what Edwards has put forward. She also has pushed to expand Internet access to more rural areas.

Tim Marema, vice president of the Center for Rural Strategies, a Kentucky-based organization that tries to bring attention to rural needs, praised elements of the plans put forward by Clinton, Edwards and Brownback.

He said candidates too often think of rural needs purely in terms of agriculture and the gargantuan farm bill that Congress passes every four to seven years.

“A lot of time what we see is, ‘I’m for rural America. I voted for the farm bill,’” Marema said. “That doesn’t really address the needs of rural America. That addresses the needs of ConAgra and big agribusinesses.”

Marema said only a tiny fraction of those who live in rural communities earn their living through agriculture.

A presidential administration could help rural areas most, Marema argued, if it focused on a few things, including:

• Increasing Internet access

• Providing loans and grants to spur the growth of businesses whose jobs would replace the loss of manufacturing work

• Retooling the federal No Child Left Behind education law so teachers in rural areas, who tend to teach multiple subjects, do not have to take expensive, time-consuming and possibly career-changing certification training in different subjects

• Increasing Medicare reimbursements to rural hospitals, which do not have the high volume of patients that urban hospitals can count on.

“Our organization is trying to say, ‘Hey, you ought to be thinking about where rural America fits in with everything,’” Marema said.

BUILDING ON HELP

Rural areas are getting some help through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development section, which has offices in each state.

In South Carolina, the Agriculture Department distributed an average of $343.6 million in grants and loans each year from 2001 through 2006. The money helped rural communities pay for everything from affordable housing to water and sewer infrastructure.

Tee Miller, the Agriculture Department’s Rural Development director for South Carolina, said rural communities most often seek help with water and sewer infrastructure so they can spur economic development.

“That’s the only way to improve rural areas — when they have their own sustainable opportunities,” Miller said.

While the pool of federal money is substantial, competition for assistance is fierce.

Chuck Fluharty, president of the Rural Policy Research Institute, a nonpartisan, Missouri-based group that studies rural needs, said individual towns should not be forced to compete for aid. Instead, Fluharty said federal rural assistance programs should be changed so they can provide aid to communities that have joined forces and put together a regional plan.

Presidential candidates should embrace the idea of reforming the Agriculture Department, possibly by making the rural development section a stand-alone group, Fluharty said.

“Unless they’re dead serious, nothing is going to change,” he said.

Townsend, 58, said she’s not waiting for the next president to improve things in Holly Hill.

She and others in the area have formed a nonprofit group, Community Organization for Rights and Empowerment, to increase access to health care and draw attention to other needs.

Still, Townsend said she wants government to help organizations such as CORE.

“I see so much in this community that can be done.”

Reach senior writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.

WHAT RURAL AREAS FACE

South Carolina is largely a collection of small cities and towns. While those communities can conjure up warm thoughts of front-porch friendliness, rural areas often struggle.

What are the issues?

• The loss of rural manufacturing jobs has fed higher unemployment than in urban areas.

• Economic development often is hampered by old or nonexistent water and sewer lines.

• School facilities are old and in need of repair. Also, teacher recruitment is a challenge.

• Many rural residents face long commutes beyond their communities to work or see a doctor. Due to a lack of services and opportunities, many rural areas are seeing their populations decline as young people go away to college and stay away to take jobs not available in their hometowns.

Political solutions?

Presidential candidates readily profess some affiliation with small towns or small-town values. But detailed plans to ease their struggles are few. Instead, the candidates have touted a variety of policies — including tax cuts, incentives and enhanced telecommunications infrastructure — to improve the lives of rural residents.