Rural Counties Surprise N.C. With Highest Support for Bond

They are not the counties that will benefit most directly from the bond - they are small and rural and they contain no universities or community colleges.

Hertford, Bertie, Martin and Scotland counties all garnered 86 percent approval for the bond - the highest approval rate in the state. Statewide, the bond passed with a 73 percent approval rating.

Durham, Orange and Wake counties - home to three universities and two community colleges - approved the bond with 84 percent, 83 percent and 76 percent, respectively.

The higher education bond will provide for $2.5 billion in capital funding for the 16 UNC-system universities, and $600 million for the 59 community colleges in the state.

Although the four counties that led in bond approval do not contain any universities or community colleges, county commissioners say these areas could benefit from the bond's passage as much, if not more, than counties with institutions of higher education.

Vernice Howard, a Hertford County commissioner, said there are several community colleges in surrounding areas that Hertford residents attend.

She said people in rural areas realized the bond would provide education funds that poorer communities could not otherwise obtain. "Community colleges are doing great things here in our county," Howard said. "But we are just not able, as a small rural community, to give them as much money as the bond will allow them to get."

Howard said there was no specific campaign tactic used to promote the bond, but many local political candidates endorsed the bond referendum in their speeches and campaigns. "A lot of people were motivated by local races and campaigners," Howard said. "These people weren't just campaigning for themselves, but also for the bond."

Zee Lamb, Bertie County manager, also said many Bertie community groups and political campaigners promoted the bond because it would support neighboring and satellite community colleges and universities.

"Various community groups endorsed it, including many get-out-and-vote groups," Lamb said. "There was no organized opposition to (the bond.)"

Reyna Walters, student outreach coordinator for the bond campaign, said another reason the bond was so successful in rural areas was that the bond campaign was set up as a grassroots organization. "It was not a top-bottom campaign, but more of a bottom-up campaign - people in the community took part in educating people about the bond," Walters said.

But UNC political science Professor Thad Beyle said the most likely reason for the high bond approval in rural counties is the economic status of these areas. "These are fairly nonwealthy counties, and people are looking for ways to get better jobs," Beyle said.

"With the tobacco industry going down, they want better jobs for their kids and for themselves, and they see community colleges as a way to do that."

The State & National Editor can be reached as stntdesk@unc.edu.