The solution is at once simple and complex. How do you create prosperity in North Carolina's rural counties? You get them the same resources that the urban counties enjoy. But that is oh, so easier said than done.


And yet, we have to try. Because for many of this state's rural counties, joblessness, poverty and despair are a way of life. Many of those rural counties once had booming agricultural economies, built on a thriving market for cotton, tobacco and other crops. And much of the cotton went straight to nearby mills, where it was the raw material for the South's equally prosperous textile industry. But fewer and fewer people smoke and tobacco growing is a fast-shrinking occupation. Cotton? Other countries grow it cheaper and closer to the 21st century textile industry, which long ago moved to other countries where labor is dirt cheap. And in what remains of America's textile factories, people have mostly been replaced by machines.


What's left for the residents of this state's rural counties — about 80 out of North Carolina's 100? For some that are well situated by the mountains or the shore, there's money in tourism. For others near the state's major metropolitan areas, there's the possibility — even the likelihood — and continued growth will spill out into the surrounding areas, as it has into the once-rural counties around Charlotte.


But as participants in a rural-prosperity symposium held last week in Pinehurst said, there are some big obstacles. The biggest is education. The North Carolina Constitution requires that, "The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of free public schools, which shall be maintained at least nine months in every year, and wherein equal opportunities shall be provided for all students." But that's a joke. Education is anything but equal, because the richer counties can afford to supplement the school appropriations they get from the state with local funding. That means, quite simply, that they can pay higher teacher salaries, build more schools, offer more electives and generally create superior school systems. That's not an option in poorer, rural counties.


As a result, many rural school systems have annual teacher turnover that can reach or exceed 25 percent. And they simply can't attract the best and brightest teachers to their schools with the abysmal pay they can offer. Most of the best young teachers head for the cities.


And the problem gets worse: The inadequate education systems create a labor pool that's not ready for the world of 21st century employment, which requires workers trained to tackle the realms of robotics, artificial intelligence. nanotechnology and other cutting-edge technology that is developing with increasing speed. Worse, those counties don't have the "gigabit" high-speed internet service and the kinds of reliable electric power that new industries need.


This won't change until the state's leaders get serious about doing more. More than two decades ago, North Carolina's Supreme Court ruled that the state was violating its own constitution with inadequate funding for rural schools. The "Leandro" decision was named for a Hoke County student who was part of a larger suit. Nearly 20 years later, there's been no substantive change. And we see little inclination in the General Assembly to chart a new course and steer more and better resources to our rural counties and school systems.


There are a host of initiatives aimed at bolstering the state's rural economy, and some of them have real promise. But until the kids in Hoke County have the same educational opportunities as the kids in Wake, the urban-rural divide is going to be large and progress will come slowly and with great difficulty. The ball, really, is in our lawmakers' court.


- GateHouse Media