2008 Key Messages
Everything from education, health care, natural resources, partnerships, along with various other issues that will be of great importance in this Election cycle.
Education
Reframe the accountability discussion to support educational experiences that connect students to place and community, and involve them in economic and vocational opportunities.
Stop high-stakes testing that does not fix the achievement gap, but rather pushes students, teachers and administrators out of schools.
Institute immigration reform that ensures access to post-secondary education for undocumented students.
Health
A healthy rural America requires more than health care reform – there needs to be a shift in focus to prevention, community-based solutions, and investments in people and infrastructure.
Rural health providers can lead the way in innovative approaches to service delivery if freed from inflexible funding and program rules.
Veterans should not have to travel further than anyone else for their health care.
Natural Resources
Rural America is uniquely positioned to play a vital role in solving America's biggest challenges:
Climate change
Competitive sustaining economy
Protecting our lands and natural systems
Food security
Energy security
To do this we need:
Rural innovation
Effective federal policies and land management agencies
Local ownership and management of core assets
Investment
Understand the diverse character of rural communities and their challenges, including chronic poverty, economic transitions in resource dependent communities, and the implications of gentrification.
The federal government should stop expanding federal definitions of “metropolitan area†to incorporate more and more of rural America, obscuring rural challenges by shrinking rural America.
Recognize the development potential in natural resource protection, the growth of regional agriculture, working landscapes, renewable energy and marine and fishery industries that create environmentally sustainable income, employment and ownership opportunities.
Recognize that rural people and communities understand their challenges and opportunities best, and continue to craft innovative and effective approaches to meeting them. Provide incentives for private capital markets, donors and investors to invest in and through organizations that build new assets and wealth for rural people and communities.
Rename the Department of Agriculture the Department of Rural Affairs. Increase investments in rural development. Reflect these changes by dropping the name "Farm Bill"
Use the bully pulpit, regulatory powers, program initiatives and tax incentives as carrots and sticks to increase private investment, lending and philanthropy in rural communities.
Encourage and promote partnerships involving the federal and other levels of government, rural development groups on the ground and the private sector.
