Appalachia Case Study

Appalachia is notoriously known for being one of the poorest regions in the United States. There are many contributions to the financial burden of the Appalachian region, especially education. Appalachia is frequently at the receiving end of many jokes that undermine their education system, as well as, the intelligence level of the people that live there. The financial instability, along with the education quality presents an important question to be answered. How does education affect Appalachia, financially and from an employment standpoint? The Appalachian region has suffered tremendously. Through research, reports show that the region has been negatively impacted by the lack of emphasis put on receiving a quality education. Appalachia

Educational absence has proved to be a burden for families in the Appalachian region. Appalachian families suffer intellectually, along with financially. Reports display that the median household income in Appalachia was unluckily around $42,500, which is roughly only $21,000 per adult in each house. An additional 56 counties in Appalachia, unfortunately, had household incomes of under $30,000. In contrast, 19 counties in the region, most of which were in the metropolitan area, had household incomes at or above the national average. Almost all of the counties in the group were outside metropolitan areas and even more of them were in central Appalachia (Pollard, Jacobson 38). This report shows that income levels for the Appalachian region are significantly lower than the rest of the nation, which indirectly illustrates how hard it could be to live on such a low income. In Appalachia, it is not a big deal for people to have no education. Appalachian communities, more common in smaller areas, rely on large firms. Each of these firms usually come with a “higher power territory” in the economy, which simply means that since they are such a huge part of the city or town, they have more economical power than most. Large firms in Appalachia seem to indirectly discourage education, as it provides little to no benefit for them in the work firm. In addition to discouraging education, these firms in the Appalachian

Though the rates of schooling have been on a decline for many years, Appalachia is making a comeback and slowly beginning to resemble the rest of the nation. A report by Allan J. DeYoung, Thomas C. Shaw, and Eric W. Rademacher shows, “The most recent decennial censuses provide both positive and negative news for Appalachian communities. After lagging behind the nation in 1980, residents of Appalachia now closely resemble the nation as a whole in terms of the percentage of the population graduating from high school. Appalachian communities also experience a consistent increase in the percentage of the population attaining a college degree or better - from slightly over 11 percent in 1980 to approximately 18 percent in 2000. On the negative side, however, residents living in Appalachian communities continue to lag behind the nation in the percentage of the population possessing a college degree.” (DeYoung, Rademacher, & Shaw, 328) The report shows Appalachia and how the averages of educational attainment have risen. On the down side, the report shows how the Appalachian region still remains behind the rest of the