In Rural America, High Poverty, High Need for After-school Programs

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Sunflower County, Mississippi, sounds like a cheerful place until you realize the poverty rate is double the national average, and unemployment averaged 13.2 percent in 2015.

That's why Sunflower County Freedom Project operates an after-school program with academic support and enrichment aimed at helping kids advance to college.

In many ways, Sunflower County reflects the reality of rural areas in the United States and more children in poverty than the national average, a higher incidence of very deep poverty and a minority population experiencing the brunt of it.

However, rural children in general have less access to after-school programs, After school Alliance in a report released last week.

60 percent of rural parents polled in the organization's most recent America survey said existing programs were difficult to afford. Forty percent of those who didn't place their child in a program said cost was the reason, according to the report.

There aren't nearly enough after school programs to meet the need in rural America, Afterschool Alliance executive director, in a statement. It should be a high priority for our leaders to change that. Rural programs are more likely to engage families in various activities and to provide food that parents consider healthy, according to the Alliance.

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