Rural Kansas Decline (Plains, Logan, Wallace: jobs, schools, college)

[Plains10]

Kansas, like many other states in the Great Plains has seen an out-migration of people from rural areas to urban areas. This has been going on for almost 100 years in some counties. In fact, Kansas has quite a few ghost towns from a distant past when larger numbers of people lived in small towns instead of left them. Another problem is that large numbers of younger people have been leaving the rural areas in search of employment in larger urban areas. Many younger people have been leaving this state when they receive their College degree in search of high paying jobs.
Many counties in Kansas have lost close to 10% of their population in the last 5 years alone mainly due to out-migration. A lot of these counties are now qualified as "frontier counties" because their are fewer than 6 people per square mile. I suggest that if individual counties want to get stronger than more consolidation has to take place. A possibility would be to combine counties and form several larger counties, similar to what Nebraska has. Consolidation will be the key word in the coming years for Kansas and other Great Plains states as the rural populations lose ever larger numbers of people and the total populations become more centralized in the larger and smaller metro areas.
What have been your experiences with rural decline, and how can consolidation and possibly increased rural economic development help these rural areas?

[dunkhouse]

I live in West Virginia where we have a similar brain drain. I have felt for years that we could do ourselves a big favor by combining our 55 counties into maybe 30 or so and eliminate redundant governments. I think you make a very good point.

[Plains10]

The counties in northwest Kansas should consolidate into a much larger county similar to what Nebraska has in its isolated rural areas. By consolidating the counties into one big county it would save money overall. The counties that should be consolidated into a larger county should be Cheyenne, Rawlins, Decatur, Sheridan, Thomas, Graham, Trego, Logan, Gove, Sherman, and Wallace. It just makes economic sense considering the population declines are quite large and all younger people are leaving. One county seat for all of these combined counties could also spur economic development by concentrating more people into a slightly larger regional center town. Consolidation of schools in individual rural counties would not happen as much if their was one bigger county with more jobs and businesses centered around the regional center. The only drawback would be longer driving distances for those who live in the far flung rural areas. However, very few people live in the isolated rural areas anymore either.