To help rural communities, Kansans and their lawmakers will need to do more than the inadequate broadband funds approved by the Legislature recently.
In Topeka and nationwide, voters and their elected officials need to understand that everyone benefits from collective investments in decent roads, internet service, educational opportunities and access to health care.
That’s part of the American experience dating back to the 1700s, when governments helped build roads to help farmers get produce to town. That didn’t just help farmers, it also helped city residents who wanted to eat.
The investments continued with huge federal subsidies to railroads in the 1800s, which opened new states and territories for settlement and commerce.
President Franklin Roosevelt’s programs brought electricity and telephone to rural America starting in the 1930s.
In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower launched the interstate highway program.
Better highways and rural electrification and telephone service helped not only small towns and rural America, they helped the country become a leading producer and exporter of food.
Such advancements and connections generally come with pluses and minuses.
In agriculture, for example, running a farm now takes a lot fewer people and a lot more machinery. The advancements have been one factor in rural population declines.
And although there are niche farming operations working to prove there are exceptions to the big-is-more-efficient rule, it’s not likely that overall trends will revert to Americana 1920. Today, internet service is as basic as electricity or roads or phones were 50 years ago. Yet many Kansans don’t have access to decent internet service. Or if decent service is available, the cost is prohibitive.
Big or small, technology is essential to any business that wants to survive in the 21st century.
Today, internet service is as basic as electricity or roads or phones were 50 years ago.
Yet many Kansans don’t have access to decent internet service. Or if decent service is available, the cost is prohibitive.
Official reports — with data supplied by companies offering internet service —show virtually every Kansan has access.
