Partnerships between the USDA and rural colleges are one approach that allows individual students and regional economies to fulfill their potential. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made a decision to be involved with rural community colleges, which has really made a difference on what is happening on campus. Through a dizzying array…

Context: The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 allowed some rural hospitals meeting certain requirements to convert to Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and changed their Medicare reimbursement from prospective to cost-based. Some subsequent CAH-related laws reduced restrictions and increased payments, and the number of CAHs grew rapidly. Purpose:…

Reviews two models of community-attachment, linear-development and systematic models, using data on social ties and local sentiments from survey respondents in Iowa communities. Linear-development variables (population size and density) relate weakly to community attachment. Systematic variables (residence length, income, and age) relate more…

Rural school consolidation in Iowa in the early 20th century was not simply an attempt at educational reform, but was also an attempt to transform the rural social geography of the region. Since consolidation of corporate power had resulted in economic progress in the cities, it was thought that re-centering rural life around country towns could…

The constant flow of wealth from the countryside to the city arises from farms being bought out by co-heirs, educating children to move away, rents paid to absentee landlords, profits generated locally but landing elsewhere, and overreliance on property taxes. Overviews problems specific to northwestern Iowa and how they will affect the future of…

The economic decline of rural America has widespread consequences for families, children, and education. Broad changes in farming and in the rural nonfarm sector have pushed the poverty rate for rural areas in the 1980s higher than the central cities rate. Projections indicate that by the mid-1990s, one-half of all farm families in the midwest may…