News from rural America.

Kentucky environmentalists tackle 'zombie' mines, stereotypes of rural voters are debunked, and despite a messy start, some say rural students bound for college should benefit from the simplified FAFSA.

TRANSCRIPT

(upbeat music) For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

Do rural Americans favor Donald Trump because of extremism, racism, and xenophobia?

That's what a new book says, but as Olivia Weeks explains, others disagree. - In "White Rural Rage, The Threat to American Democracy," authors Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman cite studies they say show rural residents are more worried about immigrants, minorities, and feminists than city people.

But Colby College political scientist Nicholas Jacobs says the authors have misread the research. - Scholars have increasingly shown that what really distinguishes rural people is not racial resentment, is not xenophobia, but very particular challenges that only rural people face. - Jacobs says crunch the numbers and rural voters are no worse than their urban peers, but they are often very frightened by the economic challenges facing communities they love and feel ignored when talking about that.

All three authors agree, understanding rural voters is crucial to protecting democracy.

I'm Olivia Weeks. - Despite a messy start, one higher education reporter says rural students should benefit from the simplified free application for federal student aid form, or FAFSA.

Nick Farizzo says the rollout was three months late, but over time it should make students' lives easier. - Somewhere around 750,000 people who previously would not have been eligible for federal aid should be under this new FAFSA. - Farizzo says a streamlined application could especially help rural students who are the first in their family to attend college. - It's not just the simplification, but it's also the expansion of access that should open the door for rural students as well as other traditionally marginalized communities. - Due to rolling deadlines, rural community college students are unlikely to be hurt by FAFSA delays.

In Kentucky, a report shows 40% of mines labeled active haven't produced coal in four years.

Neither dead nor alive, environmentalists call them zombie mines because the longer they sit idle, the risk grows that the mining operator won't have sufficient funds to pay for reclamation. - If it's just sitting there, nothing productive is happening on that land.

And so as they sit there, they tend to deteriorate. - Erin Savage with Appalachian Voices says the 2021 infrastructure law allocated $11 billion for abandoned coal mine cleanup.

But that hasn't happened.

And now an environmental coalition is calling for action.

Savage says the proposed policies could provide laid off miners with a paycheck. - If mines were reclaimed more expediently, we would have more miners back at work. - She says reclaimed mines are fertile ground for renewable energy projects like wind or solar.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.

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