ROANOKE TIMES
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 17, 1993                   TAG: 9310170110
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short


EXTENSION SERVICE FOCUS SHIFT URGED

The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, founded in 1914 to bring education and technology from college campuses to rural areas, needs to shift its focus to the inner cities, a report says.

The state Department of Planning and Budget report released Friday offered 40 recommendations to state Secretary of Education Karen Petersen, including the shift in emphasis.

Extension agents surveyed by the planning department identified youth and families at risk as the most critical problems that the agency should address.

Although only 1.3 percent of the state's 6.2 million residents lived on farms in 1990, the extension service assigned 39 percent of its field agents to agriculture and natural-resources programs, the report said.

The agency spent $47.4 million in fiscal 1992. Nearly half the money was spent on agriculture and natural resources programs.

The extension service already is helping inner-city residents build strong families and non-English speaking refugees adjust to life in the United States, but it needs to do more, according to the study.

The report recommended that Petersen appoint a task force to work on some of the recommendations.



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