If not for the benevolence of politicians in Washington, public schools in New Hampshire's North Country would not have access to “quality educational opportunities.” At least, that's what the Obama administration wants us to think.

Last month, the U.S. Agriculture Department released a $30 million grant “to improve access to health care and educational services in rural areas.” New Hampshire's North Country Education Services received $497,531 to “connect K-12 students in Coos and Grafton County schools to distant sources of instruction and enrichment by establishing a video distance learning network,” according to a USDA press release.

But New Hampshire already has a video distance learning network. It doesn't need Washington handouts to “establish” one.

“This program delivers educational and medical opportunities that are urgently needed in remote, rural areas,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “President Obama has said that no matter where you live in America, you should have access to quality educational opportunities. Rural Americans deserve the same opportunities for education and medical care as metropolitan-area residents, and these funds will make that happen.”

ConnectNH, formerly the Granite State Distance Learning Network, already exists to “make that happen.” It is a nonprofit group that grew out of the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension service. It provides distance learning services such as video conferencing and virtual classrooms to nonprofits, including schools, throughout New Hampshire.

ConnectNH is a membership consortium. Schools, museums, hospitals and other nonprofit groups pay to use the distance learning services. Non-members can participate in specific events.

It already serves several public schools in the North Country, connecting them to each other and to learning centers such as the Squam Lakes Natural Sciences Center and the Mount Washington Observatory. ConnectNH director George Fryburg told us that most of the organization's money comes from membership fees.

Some federal grant money does flow to ConnectNH. It primarily pays for capital purchases, Fryburg said. ConnectNH got money from a 2010 USDA grant and will receive some of the grant announced last month. But the fact that this organization subsists on membership fees exposes Vilsack's hyperbole.

The goal of these USDA grants is laudable. Yet contrary to Vilsack's spin, they are hardly necessary for the provision of “urgently needed” educational and medical opportunities. States can and do provide these services without relying on Washington handouts. If we stopped redistributing this money through the hands of politicians and bureacrats in Washington, who always take their cut, there would be even more available for worthwhile projects back home.