How we got to this point is a complicated — and sometimes tragic — story. However, understanding where we’ve been is critical to understanding where we can go.
"Lawmakers who represent rural areas told Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a hearing Wednesday that the No Child Left Behind law, as well as the Obama administration’s blueprint for overhauling it, failed to take sufficiently into account the problems of rural schools, and their nine million students," reports the New York Times' Sam Dillon. The questions asked yesterday of Education Secretary Arne Duncan (above) were all good ones. Why does the formula for distributing education money still favor urban districts at the expense of those in rural areas? How is it going to help rural schools to fire instructors or principals when ready replacements are not around to be hired?
The complaint about the Obama administration's education policy has been that it is urban-centric, or, as Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming put it yesterday, "urban centered." (Duncan is from Chicago.) Still is, apparently.
“There are lots of bright people at the Department of Education, and they work very hard,” said John Hill, executive director of the National Rural Education Association, based at Purdue University. “But because most have not grown up or worked in a rural area, they find it difficult to see how things work in remote districts.”
Rural school districts are going to
face special hurdles in competing in the latest round of funding from
the federal stimulus package, according rural education advocates.
So
the Rural School and Community Trust is trying to get the word out to
rural schools and nonprofits on how they can win a piece of the federal
Department of Education’s “Investing in Education” grant program
(called “i3,” for short).
The national competitive grant program
will provide $650 million in funding from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009. Deadline is May 11.
The Rural Trust
will hold a webinar on the i3 grant program at 11 a.m. Eastern time on
Friday, March 19, 2010. The free presentation will offer an overview on
the i3 grant program, which will fund local efforts that start or
expand innovative programs to help improve student performance. (To register, visit the Trust’s website.)
Rural districts can, and should, compete for the grants, Williams said.
“Rural
districts have to understand this that challenge is really big,” she
said, citing a general decline in private and public funding for rural
education. “The financial picture for rural schools is pretty grim."
Williams
said funding decline was a product of several factors: private
foundations shifting to a more urban focus, flat state budgets, and
declining local tax revenues.
Education increases chances for employment. Distance learning increases educational opportunities for rural residents. Rural development these days means broadband and online classes.
Education | Growth and Development | Main Street Economics
One reason rural counties have shown consistently higher unemployment rates during this recession is education. Rural America has a lower percentage of BAs and that results in higher unemployment
An 83-year-old school has served its community well, top-notch
students and teachers deserve a dry gym and heated rooms -- a building up to their high standards.
"Urbanite Duncan Continues Rural Outreach," reads the headline in an Education Week blog post written by Michele McNeil. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (above), "whose education experience is firmly planted in urban ground, is continuing to reach out to rural folks to figure out how the reforms he's pushing will play out int he farther reaches of the country." So Duncan met with the "Rural Nine," nine superintendents from rural school districts.
The superintendents told McNeil that they talked to Duncan about his urban-centric plans for reforming schools. They told the Education Week correspondent that none of the reform models Duncan is pushing will work for rural schools. For instance, the most flexible plan calls for replacement of principals at failing schools. But where is a rural district supposed to find a choice of new principals. Trained school leaders aren't exactly hanging around rural communities waiting for openings. The superintendents also complained about the time it took to apply for federal grants. "Many of us simply do not have the capacity to spend all of this time applying for grants," one Michigan superintendent said.
Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation announced the winners of $290 million in education grants. None of the schools or school districts were in rural communities.