The rural poverty rate is about 3 points higher than the U.S. rate, now 15 percent; for children, the rural poverty rate is 6 points higher than in the city. And 301 of the 353 counties with persistently high poverty rates are in the country.
The highest priority for government action should be to reduce child poverty rates, primarily by helping their parents, says economics Professor Mark Partridge of Ohio State University in a companion article. “Providing high-quality early education would be the first step, as well as efforts to improve affordability of college education for low-income students.” He also suggests targeting high-poverty areas for attention. There is evidence, he says, that “poor households are willing to work their way out of poverty if the opportunity arises.” There is consensus among lawmakers on approaches such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Partridge noted.
Educational attainment is rising in rural America, says USDA. “The most recent American Community Survey shows that the percentage of the working-age (adults between the ages of 25 and 64) rural population with schooling beyond a high school diploma increased from 44.5 percent in 2000 to 50.6 percent in 2008-12.”
House Budget chairman Paul Ryan is to propose today an anti-poverty initiative, the “opportunity grant,” that combines “a range of safety-net programs — from food stamps to housing vouchers — into a single grant offered to states,” says the Washington Post. It says safety-net funding would stay at the same levels as current law. Ryan, the 2012 Republican nominee for vice president, has repeatedly a block grant for food stamps that included large cuts. The Post quotes a Democratic lawmaker as asking, “Is he walking away from his own budget plan?”