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 As Senator, Lee Jones will no longer allow the United States government to continue ignoring the mounting problems facing rural areas in Kansas. The people of America can no longer turn their backs on the empty classrooms and deserted businesses. Lee Jones is committed to fighting corporate greed and overturning current economic disparity in rural Kansas while ensuring that future generations can share in our prosperity and achieve rural recovery by:
- Strengthening rural schools by providing needed funding, promoting quality rural teachers and utilizing technology
- Improving rural health care and providing affordable access for all rural Kansans
- Creating a new green energy economy in rural Kansas
- Ensuring fairness for family farmers by dismantling anticompetitive mergers
- Connecting rural communities by investing in rural broadband
- Regulating rural banking so that rural families will have access to needed resources
- Eliminating the presence of Methamphetamines in rural America
- Expanding access to clean water
Small towns and rural areas help to define strong American values. In turn, America gives these rural communities the responsibility of building a strong manufacturing base and providing reliable and affordable food.
Lee Jones is no stranger to the plight of the Kansas farmer. As a native of a small town in Kansas, growing up on his family farm, Jones has experienced first-hand the problems experienced by rural America.
In most rural areas, families earn 27% less than metropolitan families. In fact, 244 of the poorest 250 counties in Kansas are rural. International trade, off-shoring jobs, and automation are to blame for this devastation. Rural youth have few incentives to keep them from moving to opportunities elsewhere and once thriving communities have turned into ghost towns. One in four Kansas non-metro counties lost population in the 1990’s and that number continues to grow exponentially.
Investing In The Future
The first step to rural recovery is investment in rural economic development by providing incentives and financial aid for small businesses. Federal assistance needs to be increased in order to support entrepreneurs in rural areas. Lee Jones will create a national fund that will be used to bring capital and management expertise to small-town America. This fund will connect investors with rural entrepreneurs and organize businesses into networks to help them succeed together while ensuring that rural areas have access to the investment capital they need.
Child poverty rates in rural areas are higher than urban rates for every racial and ethnic group. The highest child poverty rates are in the most isolated rural areas. Lee Jones will raise the minimum wage, cut taxes for low-wage workers, help workers save and invest and expand affordable housing near good jobs and schools to combat child poverty.
Over half of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $70 billion budget for rural development funds has actually gone to metropolitan regions, suburbs of midsize cities and resort towns. As Senator, Lee Jones will rewrite these funding rules and get resources to the intended isolated and disadvantaged areas. Because many small towns lack the grant-writing capabilities of larger towns, Lee Jones will direct federal agencies to offer a simplified one-page grant application for small grants to rural towns and counties.
Green Energy
Renewable sources of energy -- including ethanol, biodiesel, wind and solar energy -- can not only make the U.S. independent of foreign oil and cut greenhouse gases but they can also create new industries and hundreds of thousands of jobs in rural America. Developing green energy sources will make American stronger and safer.
Investing in rural areas is of critical national interest. Lee Jones will work to establish new energy funds that will jumpstart renewable energies. These funds will underwrite commercially viable projects such as development of cellulose ethanol technology that provides more net energy using farm wastes than grains.
Lee Jones wants new markets created for ethanol. Jones supports requiring that all new cars run on both gasoline and E85 ethanol, much like many other countries. This will require 25 percent of chain gas stations to carry E85 fuels. By working with U.S. automakers to make efficient and alternative-fuel cars, Lee Jones believes that both American industry and rural areas can prosper. Lee Jones promises to always support locally owned bio-refineries with start-up capital. In addition, Lee Jones will require 25 percent of electricity to be generated from renewable sources within a reasonable period of time.
Fairness for Family Farms
Everyone recognizes that the rules are stacked against family farms. Lee Jones supports the strict enforcement of laws against anticompetitive mergers and unfair pricing as well as country-of-origin laws. This includes—
- A ban on packer ownership to stop the spread of large corporate hog interests
- A national moratorium on the construction and expansion of hog farm lagoons
- Limiting farm subsidies to $250,000 per person to help family farms
- Closing loopholes in farm subsidies payment limits
- Expanding conservation programs.
Investing in Rural Broadband
The United States was once the world leader in broadband access. Now the U.S. is 21st, trailing Estonia. The reason is simple - rural households are only about half as likely as metropolitan households to have a broadband connection. Digital connections are one of the quickest and surest ways to attract businesses to rural Kansas. Bringing this resource to rural Americans will in turn connect small town businesses to the world, affording them the opportunity to thrive. As Senator, Lee Jones will work to establish a national broadband map with detailed information to identify gaps in availability, pricing variations and broadband speed.
Strengthening Rural Schools
Rural schools in Kansas had to go to the Supreme Court to get their fair share of Kansas education money. Rural schools across the nation enroll 40 percent of American children but receive only 22 percent of federal education funding. Small rural schools often struggle to provide a complete curriculum or attract and retain excellent teachers. Lee Jones will seek to bring the Federal funding back into balance so we can properly support these rural schools.
Teachers are the most critical component of any school, and rural schools have difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers. By improving pay for teachers and offering scholarships to students who commit to teach in rural and other hard-to-staff schools, Lee Jones will help attract quality teachers. Lee Jones will also work to create college scholarships for students who commit to teach in underserved rural schools after graduation.
Distance learning via the internet can bring the content of the world’s best universities, libraries and museums to rural and remote areas. Software programs incorporating virtual reality, digital modeling and intelligent one-on-one tutoring systems are proven to dramatically accelerate learning. Lee Jones will promote Federal investment in cutting-edge research to integrate these new teaching tools and test them in rural America.
Improving Rural Health Care
Rural healthcare is in a crisis—
- 470 rural hospitals have closed in the last 25 years
- Rural counties have only 1/4 as many doctors per capita
- Rural counties have only 1/6 as many specialists per capita
- Rural areas have critical gaps in trauma care
Any universal healthcare plan will cover the 9 million rural Americans that lack insurance and establish a nationwide network of safety net clinics and public hospitals and that is why Lee Jones supports it. Lee Jones wants the unfair Medicare and Medicaid funding formulas that punish rural states and communities eliminated. Lee Jones supports Federal research and supporting funding for telemedicine that can instantaneously connect distant specialists and advanced equipment with local doctors and patients as well as allow better monitoring, chronic disease management, and emergency response.
Elimination of Methamphetamines in Rural America
The abuse of methamphetamines, or “meth,” is devastating rural America. Kansas has taken some actions that have reduced the production and sale statewide, but since this drug can be easily, quickly and cheaply produced we must remain vigilant. Lee Jones will work to expand existing programs that successfully treat addicts, such as the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program. He will also re-enforce drug laws in rural areas, helping the state make methamphetamines ingredients more difficult to get.
Protecting Lawful Gun Ownership
In small towns all across America hunting and gun ownership is not only a right, but also a way of life. As a lifelong sportsman, Lee Jones respects the American tradition of hunting and believes that it is possible to be tough on crime, stop criminals from using guns and still protect Second Amendment rights. Lee Jones will protect the right of law-abiding citizens to participate in gun shows and ensure that all weapons sold there are subject to instant checks.
Expanding Access to Clean Water
Every household deserve clean, drinkable water and sanitation services, but almost 2 million Americans lack basic plumbing facilities. Rural households are four times more likely to lack proper plumbing than urban homes. Inadequate water and sanitation damage public health and impede economic development. Lee Jones will help local areas improve their infrastructure and tackle local pollution problem as well as establish tough clean air and water requirements for concentrated animal feeding operations.
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