Rep. Queen is leading the way
To the Editor:
Our N.C. House Rep. Joe Sam Queen is fulfilling every campaign promise he made two years ago. Here is the latest example, one that affects people, especially school-age children, here in WNC’s most isolated areas the most.
As the leader of the Broadband Caucus, in 2019 Rep. Queen with fellow caucus members tripled the GREAT grant funding from $10 million to $30 million. Multiple grants are heading to Western North Carolina.
Two of these WNC grants total $233,645 for Jackson County and $179,153 for Swain County. They are bringing high-speed internet to over 900 homes.
As a retired teacher I know that children and young adults must be able to download homework assignments and lessons at home. So getting high-speed internet is necessary to rural students’ learning and therefore their future success.
As someone who grew up on a remote rural farm in Kentucky, way before there were computers, I experienced the joy of learning and the world of opportunity it can bring. Used judiciously and with parental supervision, and alongside printed books, the internet is as necessary to students today as print books alone were to us older folks.
As a grandfather, father, and seventh-generation Haywood County native, Rep. Queen clearly has our young people’s well-being uppermost in his mind. In 2020 he is leading the N.C. House in closing the rural high-speed internet coverage gap .
Readers wouldn’t need to be told any of this except for the appalling lies in the ads by his Republican opponent for the 2020 election.
Mary Jane Curry
Haywood County
