What is the promise of a Promise Zone?

Earlier this month, President Obama announced a new initiative to fight poverty in some of the neediest places in the country – including southeast Kentucky. The Promise Zone Initiative is a new program that gives these communities priority for federal funding, and technical assistance in applying for it. In southeastern Kentucky, the program will be administered by Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation (KHIC), a small business lender with a long track record of success in the region. The Promise Zone announcement was met with much fanfare and news coverage, but what does it really mean for the region? And will it make a difference when there is so much to be done? Bell, Clay, Harlan, Letcher, Leslie, Perry, Knox, and part of Whitley County make up the eastern Kentucky Promise Zone. They have an overall poverty rate of 30 percent and an unemployment rate close to 13 percent. High school graduation rates range from 59 to 71 percent, and college graduation rates range from 8 to 12 percent.* Clearly, these counties need assistance. KHIC’s president has said their plan for the region includes job creation, increasing economic activity, improving career educational opportunities, reducing drug-related crime and improving broadband access. Career and college readiness, small business loans, entrepreneurship training and technical education programs are part of the strategy. All of these are great goals, and KHIC and its partners in this effort (including Operation UNITE, area universities and technical colleges, the Center for Rural Development and the University of Kentucky Extension)...

SOAR Report Released: What’s Next?

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers hosted a press conference, with a guest appearance from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, earlier today to release the final report of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) Summit. The summit, hosted in Pikeville last month, brought together 1,700 folks concerned about the region’s future. While largely deemed a success, many – including us – wondered what would come of it. Would it just be another photo op, or would we actually see some action taken to diversify eastern Kentucky’s economy? So far, it seems like it may be the latter. On Wednesday, the Governor announced his plans to make the Mountain Parkway – a key artery from Winchester into Eastern Kentucky – four lanes for its entire length. And just a few hours ago, we learned that the Appalachian Regional Commission will get $10 million to improve broadband internet access in counties affected by the coal downturn. Both of these issues were touted as priorities from the podium at SOAR, and t’s encouraging to see movement on both those fronts.  And today, we can read the full report from the SOAR conference. It’s a lengthy read, much of which is a thorough summary of the events of the day. But at the very beginning, the authors of the report make some key recommendations for how the SOAR Initiative should proceed: While there is significant long-term work to be done, first focus on the immediate crisis of job loss. There are low-hanging fruit...

War on Poverty 50 Years Later

The news has been abuzz this week about the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, and our little corner of the world is getting more attention than it usually does. Since the War on Poverty was launched from Martin County, Ky., national media outlets rushed to Inez to take another look and see how the region has fared in the past five decades. Of course, the typical photos of ramshackle homes and tired cliches of “poor, but proud” and “isolated and remote” are resurfacing. Some of the reporting is decent, like this piece from CBS News on health care crusader Eula Hall, and some of it is horrible; but as usual, little attention has been paid to the diversity of Appalachian culture, lifestyle and livelihoods. Some pundits are using persistent poverty in places like Appalachia as evidence that the War on Poverty has failed to do much other than waste government dollars. But a recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research refutes that idea, as reported by the Daily Yonder: The study found that throughout the 45-year period that researchers considered, “government policies have significantly reduced the share of the population in poverty, and the share in deep poverty,” defined as living with an income less than half of the poverty threshold. Without the government programs, the researchers say, the poverty rate would have climbed from 25% in 1967 to 31% in 2012. Instead, the poverty rate fell from 19% to 16% during the same period. The net effect, according to the...

Eastern Kentucky’s high rate of political corruption must be abated before real economic change can happen...

The SOAR summit hosted on Dec. 9, 2013 by Gov. Steve Beshear and Representative Hal Rogers was a success in one very particular way: it allowed eastern Kentuckians to have an open and frank conversation about the future of the region, without vitriol or judgment, in the same space as their state legislators. It was this reality that brought about 1,500 people to Pikeville, Ky., that day, and it is that reality that compelled so many to share their thoughts and ideas about Appalachia’s economic transition. Having a voice and being given a space in which to use it is a very powerful thing, and that energy showed at the conference. But, in the days and weeks since the conference, it’s become clear that one topic of discussion was missing from much of the day: political corruption. Eastern Kentucky’s past is littered with politicians who used their position of power for the good of themselves and their close allies. The truth of this cannot be ignored. In fact, it’s likely one of the biggest factors that’s held us back. Eastern Kentucky’s rate of public-official indictments was nearly four times the rate in western Kentucky from 2002 to 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, data that was cited in November by Bill Estep. And these issues don’t just happen during election season. Take, for example, this article from the Floyd County Times about how that county’s fiscal court pushed the county further into debt by commissioning contract work for which they did not have the...