Commentary
Vice President JD Vance’s remarkable journey from a trauma-filled childhood to holding the second-highest office in the country is a clear depiction of the American Dream. It is also a powerful reminder that education and opportunity can fundamentally change the trajectory of a person’s life.
It’s been 10 years since Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” publicly sharing the horrors of his childhood and how he was able to rise above them through his military experience and higher education. The book quickly became a #1 New York Times bestseller. Then, in July 2024, the book once again drew tremendous interest when President Trump selected Vance as running mate for his 2024 reelection campaign.
In a 2017 interview, Vance acknowledged that he had faced many adverse childhood experiences. During the interview, Vance confirmed each were true of his life: “being sworn at, insulted, and humiliated by his parents”; “being pushed, grabbed, or having something thrown at you”; “having parents who were separated or divorced”; “living with an alcoholic or a drug user”; “living with someone who is depressed or attempted suicide”; and “watching a loved one be physically abused.”
Research shows adverse childhood experiences often correlate with long-term struggles in mental health, education, addiction, employment, and economic stability. Many children raised in instability never escape the cycle of poverty and despair that affects previous generations.
Vance’s parents were from the Appalachian region of rural Kentucky, and he grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio. While the terrain of Middletown is flat to rolling, as opposed to the rugged hills and deep valleys of the Appalachian Mountains, Vance’s life reflected many of the harsh realities prevalent throughout America’s Appalachian region.
Today, 26 million Americans live in the Appalachian region, which includes all of West Virginia and a significant portion of 12 additional states—Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Complex, deeply rooted challenges confront Appalachia. Entire communities struggle as manufacturing and coal industries have been in decline for decades, stable family structures erode, and educational systems frequently fail to provide students with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a changing economy. Drug addiction and overdose deaths devastate countless families, while many young people feel trapped in environments with limited opportunity and little hope for advancement.
Yet Vance’s story demonstrates that the cycle can be broken.
Despite overwhelming adversity, he found pathways to opportunity through education, military service, mentorship, and perseverance. After serving in the Marine Corps, Vance attended Ohio State University and later graduated from Yale Law School. His rise from a chaotic childhood to the vice presidency is extraordinary, and underscores the transforming power of education and how it creates opportunity for individuals.
That is precisely why education reform and economic renewal matter deeply in Appalachia and throughout America. Too often, children growing up in struggling communities are assigned to failing schools simply because of where they live. Families with financial means can move to neighborhoods with better schools or pay private tuition, while low-income families are left with few alternatives. In far too many cases, the students who most need educational opportunity have the least access to it.
Education freedom can change that equation. Expanding school choice through education savings accounts, private school scholarships, tax credit scholarships, charter schools, and innovative learning models empowers parents to choose environments where their children can flourish academically and personally. Competition and innovation in education create incentives for schools to better meet students’ unique needs, rather than forcing every child into a one-size-fits-all system.
The Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy, under the leadership of Garrett Ballengee, is working to change the status quo not only for West Virginia but for the broader Appalachian region. Rather than accepting decline as inevitable, leaders across the region are beginning to focus on long-term cultural and economic renewal rooted in freedom, choice, and free markets.
Efforts are now underway to launch the Center for Appalachian Renewal, an initiative designed to create a better future in which the people of Appalachia are prosperous, self-confident, and free, and where strong communities and expanding opportunity enable future generations to flourish.
More specifically, the Center for Appalachian Renewal “exists to advance the long-term renewal of Appalachia by championing educational freedom, economic opportunity, entrepreneurship, strong civil society, and a culture that empowers people and communities to shape their own future.”
Education anchors the renewal strategy. A dynamic education marketplace empowers parents and encourages innovation, essential for Appalachia to reverse decades of decline. The traditional government-run, factory-model approach often fails to provide individualized, high-quality learning experiences. Large systems built for uniformity frequently overlook the realities confronting students dealing with trauma, poverty, family instability, or unique learning needs.
Renewal will require not only expanding school choice policies but also fostering a new generation of education entrepreneurs willing to create schools and learning environments tailored to the needs of Appalachian families. According to Ballengee, the Center for Appalachian Renewal will “equip education entrepreneurs with the skills, knowledge, and network to grow impactful networks of schools.”
That vision is about far more than education policy. It is about restoring hope and rebuilding communities. It is about ensuring that children growing up in Appalachia today understand that their future is not predetermined by the hardships surrounding them.
JD Vance’s life story is compelling because it proves that upward mobility in America is still possible. But it should also serve as a challenge to policymakers, educators, philanthropists, and civic leaders. There are countless children across Appalachia today with the same potential Vance once had.
The American Dream is possible when individuals are empowered with the freedom, education, and opportunity to rise beyond the limitations of their circumstances and build lives of meaning, stability, and purpose. Now is the moment for leaders, communities, and citizens to forge pathways that expand opportunity, renew hope, and make the promise of the American Dream a reality for every child in Appalachia.
