With Unfilled Jobs, Businesses Push Rural Residents Toward College
“The problem isn’t just that the plant is in a rural town with a population of less than 2,000. It’s that fewer than one in five adults in the entire surrounding Humphreys County have at least an associate degree, according to census data analyzed by the nonprofit advocacy organization Complete Tennessee. Educators and policymakers started raising alarms about low levels of college-going among people in places like this after frustration from rural Americans spilled over into national politics in 2016.”