The Swift County Monitor News editor looks at What Biden Should Do For Rural America. They are based off recommendations of professors Lisa R. Pruit of California, Jessica A. Shoemaker of Nebraska, and Ann Eisenberg of the South Carolina, with a few edits and observations, to make them more meaningful for rural Minnesota. The first recommendation is better broadband…

High-speed internet for everyone

“The COVID-19 era has made more acute something rural communities were already familiar with: High-speed internet is the gateway to everything. Education, work, health care, information access, and even a social life depend directly on broadband,” they write.

Some of us are fortunate in that our rural internet connections are very good. The vast majority of Stevens, Swift, and Big Stone counties have excellent broadband speeds of 100 MPS or better. Other counties in western Minnesota aren’t as fortunate and need improvement.
100 MPS+ Broadband Coverage
County     Percent
Stevens     97.1 %
Swift County     89.4 %
Big Stone     88.4 %
Chippewa     71.8 %
Pope     69.0 %
Grant     63.0 %
Traverse     47.9 %
If President Joe Biden and members of Congress want to improve rural America’s competitive edge, finance the expansion of high-speed internet.

What we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the remote working required by so many is that more people can live and work from rural America