Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue Wednesday announced $72 million in grants to help rural residents access health care and educational opportunities. The Department of Agriculture says the investments will benefit more than 12 million rural residents.
Perdue stated, “Increasing access to telemedicine and distance learning is critical to building healthier and more resilient rural communities.” USDA is funding 116 projects through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant program.
The program helps health care and education institutions buy the equipment and software necessary to deploy distance-learning and telemedicine services. Perdue announced investments in 40 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
One of the noted projects in Texas, the Epic Charter School is receiving a $969,000 grant to link urban schools in Oklahoma and Texas with rural schools, students and community partners in both states. In Kentucky, the Bluegrass Care Navigators will use a $500,000 grant to establish a regional telemedicine network with a hub site at its headquarters in Lexington.