EASTERN KENTUCKY: KVEC’S FIGHT FOR DIGITAL EQUITY IN ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST IMPOVERISHED REGIONS By Dessie Bowling, Robert Brown and Jeff Hawkins
Remote Learning Tools Are Key Components of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative’s Initiatives to Address Equity and Access The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) is a non-profit 501c3 educational service agency established in 1969 by 8 small school districts. Today, we serve more than 55,000 students and 3,000 educators within our 23-member districts in rural eastern Kentucky. These districts are in some of the most distressed counties in America in terms of poverty, education, and employment. This graphic identifies the economic status of counties according to the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) metrics.
The state population increased by 10.2% during this time, while county populations in the KVEC service area decreased by 11.4%. Unfortunately, current population loss trends are expected to result in a reduction in representation for our region in the State Legislature following the 2020 census report.
Rural communities need equitable representation so that Americans have their voices heard
The Fifth Congressional District is home to 22 of KVEC’s districts and ranks as the third-highest United States congressional district for percentage of population at or below the poverty threshold, according to the Food Research and Action Center data analysis of 2017.
Districts in the KVEC region are high poverty, low income, rural and remote, according to Federal Department of Education Guidelines. Although the average free and reduced lunch participation rate for the KVEC region is 73.5%, not all students eligible to participate for multiple reasons (i.e., parental permissions, social stigma, etc.). Based on 2018-19 School and Community Nutrition Qualifying Data (school-by-school count), the free and reduced lunch qualifying average for the region is 96.4%.
The region has long been dependent on a mono-economy driven by the coal industry. The decline in coal production has led to unemployment and population loss. The regional Workforce Investment Board serves all KVEC districts; they noted 34,539 fewer people working from June 2012 to September 2018 and lost
Despite the grim statistics, our K-12 public schools have documented growth over the past four years. Collectively, they have a higher College and Career Readiness level than the state average (KVEC region = 72.5%, KY = 66%) and a higher graduation rate (KVEC region = 94.4, KY = 89.7) as noted on KDE school report cards.
All counties in KVEC’s membership are designated as distressed
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47,421 people from the labor force in the 23-county area. Kentucky as a whole saw an increase of 84,935 people working and added 80,117 to its labor force during this same timeframe (Kentucky Center for Statistics, 2012-2018).
The American Consortium for Equity in Education
