In 1935 FDR established the Rural Electrification Administration to provide electricity to rural America. With help from Lyndon B. Johnson, the REA went on to become one of the Great Depression’s best investments. Electricity, coupled with former governor Dolph Briscoe’s visionary system of farm-to-market roads, revolutionized rural Texas. Recently President Obama set aside $6 billion for high-speed, affordable Internet in rural areas. Texas should be the first state to use these funds. It will bring our small towns and rural areas into the twenty-first-century economy, and it will rejuvenate public schools and higher education.
White was the governor of Texas from 1983 to 1987. He lives in Houston.
All 54 ideas from the magazine »
And 28 more you’ll find only on the web »
