Appalachia Matters: Arthritis Relief, Possible School Consolidation, Jobs and Hope and Ag. Development

This week on At the Leadership Table, General Hoyer sits down with Deb Harris from Jobs & Hope West Virginia. Deb shares her powerful personal journey to where she is today and explains how Jobs & Hope connects West Virginians in recovery with family-sustaining careers right here at home.

In the Rooted in the Mountain State segment from the Department of Agriculture we will meet Leslie Boggess director of Business Development for the Ag. Department. In many parts West Virginia there has been a reduction in the number of students attending school due to population decline as a result there have consolidations and closures of local public schools.

A few years ago, the legislature enacted a program called Hope Scholarship which provides an amount of money equal to what the state would have given to a public school for a child to go to a private school or be home schooled. Next year the program will be available to all students in the state, and it is clear this program will lead to further consolidations and closures of public schools unless the current public school funding formula is changed. Tom Susman talks with Senator Amy Grady of Mason County who is chair of the Senate Education Committee about the formula and consolidation concerns.

Approximately 32.5 to 33 million American adults suffer from osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis. This degenerative joint disease affects about 1 in 7 U.S. adults, with prevalence rising to 50% or more among adults aged 65 and older. In our final segment we will learn about a new treatment for osteoarthritis using low dose radiation therapy. Doctor Maxwell Tran of Holzer Health is breaking new ground for those of us who have osteoarthritis.