Rural roots

Kansas has drawn tremendous strength from its rural roots. Those small-town values are worth preserving.

A group of photos in Monday’s Journal-World showed children on a field trip. Their goal was to have hands-on experiences that children of a generation or two ago would have taken for granted.

In those days, most Kansans had some tie to the state’s rural culture. They lived on a farm or had family members who did. Milking a cow, raising chickens or mowing hay were common experiences.

But for the youngsters pictured in Monday’s Journal-World, a trip to the country was almost like traveling to a foreign country. Holding a baby chick or seeing how a milking machine worked were all new experiences. It was a chance for urban youngsters with cool sunglasses and caps worn backwards to learn about how food is produced.

The fact that, for many Kansans, a visit to a farm is a rare occurrence raises some questions and concerns about the future of the rural areas of our state. People who grew up in and around Kansas farm communities place a high value on the lifestyle those communities provide. They have a special feeling for wide open spaces, small churches and friendly businesses. They appreciate a farmer’s connection to the land and the work ethic that many Kansas youngsters have carried with them to jobs in the city.

But in another generation or so, the number of Kansans who have personal experience with small-town life and agricultural production will drop drastically. For that reason, now may represent a crucial crossroads for the future of rural Kansas. Will the state find ways to preserve and promote small towns, especially in the western two-thirds of the state? Or will those towns and school districts continue to shrink?

Either way, it will cost the state money. It seems far better to invest in projects that help those areas thrive than to spend that money trying to prop up schools and health care services in dying rural communities.

Communication and technology are key. The state has established the framework for the KanEd program to extend high-speed Internet services to schools, hospital and libraries throughout the state. Some telephone companies and Internet providers already have made the commitment to offer this important service to other customers.

The state may need to get creative in its efforts to attract new companies to rural sections of the state. The most important factor in any community’s economic survival is the availability of jobs for its residents. Agriculture once provided those jobs, but fewer farmers now farm more acres and require fewer support services in communities. Perhaps the state should consider special tax incentives to draw business ventures to the rural areas where they can supply new jobs for Kansans who enjoy  even treasure  a small-town lifestyle.

U.S. Census data show the average age in many small Kansas communities is on the rise. Rural school districts are being forced to close their doors because of enrollment declines. Looking at these trends, rural Kansas towns may seem like a dying breed.

It’s not too late to reverse that fate, but it will take a commitment and creativity by many Kansans who value the state’s rural roots.