Rural Schools Fight Funding Lawsuits

This from Rural Education:

Twenty-one small, mostly rural school districts and a group of parents in Colorado should wrap up a fifth and final week of trial today in a landmark school funding lawsuit.

They are challenging the way the state distributes money to its public schools, arguing that an "irrational and arbitrary" system has put some children at a disadvantage. The state's position is that its school districts mostly are succeeding and increased funding doesn't necessarily mean higher student achievement. The Lobato v. State of Colorado case has been in court since 2005.

The case has attracted the attention of rural education advocates, likely because this kind of case isn't unique to Colorado.

Many rural school supporters contend the country is plagued by inequitable funding systems, and they've taken the issue to courts nationwide.

An article we highlighted, written by Marty Strange of the Rural School and Community Trust, says those inadequate and inequitable funding systems are caused in part by weak representation of rural interests when lawmakers craft school funding laws. Rural students often are dispersed among many districts and live in poverty, and those two factors are among "the most virile enemies of political power," Strange writes...

Duncan: Rural America Must Create College-Going Culture

This from Politics K-12:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who certainly isn't known for crafting policies aimed at rural America, issued this challenge today to a group of rural advocates: "Make a commitment to ensure rural students complete college at higher rates."

For his part, Duncan said his department—and others across the Obama administration—will help.

He spoke alongside Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Washington at the National Summit on the Role of Education in Economic Development in Rural America, sponsored by the Education Commission of the States.

Duncan used his speech as another opportunity to tout President Obama's challenge that the U.S. lead the world in producing college graduates by 2020. Rural America "hasn't created a college-going culture," Duncan said.

He also used the speech as an opportunity to talk about how he thinks his agenda helps rural schools—from his ESEA reauthorization draft to the 300 rural schools that are using School Improvement Grant money to turn themselves around. He pointed to the administration's Promise Neighborhoods program (targeted at poor, urban areas) as money that can be tapped to help impoverished, rural America...

To fight chronically short supply of teachers, rural schools recruit local students for future slots

This from the Rural Blog:

In the face of state and federal mandates to turn around struggling rural schools, districts are turning to programs designed to hand-pick candidates for rural teaching slots that will soon open and train them to thrive in a geographically isolated environment. "Rural schools have long struggled to recruit talent, researchers say, especially small, remote schools and low-performing schools in high-poverty communities," Mary Schulken of Education Week reports. "Amid high stakes for rural districts as part of a national push to turn around low-performing schools, initiatives aimed at high-quality homegrown talent have emerged across the country."

Examples of such programs include one in the Ozarks where "a teacher corps under the auspices of a regional nonprofit offers scholarships to rural Missouri college students who will return to their hometowns as teachers and school leaders," Schulken writes. The University of South Dakota has redesigned its teacher-preparation program to include a rural-teaching track, and North Carolina State University has created a leadership academy, which "targets veteran teachers in a corridor of low-performing school districts and prepares them to serve as principals who can turn around that record," Schulken writes...

More Students and Not Enough Space: Rural Community Colleges Discuss Challenges

This from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Rural community colleges are the fastest-growing of all community colleges in the United States, but they face many challenges as they expand, a group of community-college leaders told Education Department officials and Congressional staff members on Wednesday.

Their remarks came at a "Rural Community College Day" meeting convened by the Education Department and the Rural Community College Alliance. It was the first time the Education Department has met specifically with rural-college leaders, department officials said, describing community colleges as a "linchpin" in President Obama's quest for the United States to have the world's highest proportion of adults with college degrees by 2020. Rural colleges make up 64 percent of the nation's 820
community-college districts, according to data from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and are often in areas in which few adults have college degrees.

But granting degrees to more students, which would be necessary if the Obama administration is to meet its goal, will present challenges, the college leaders said (see related chart.

"It's depressing to see that the bulk of the dollars go to our urban and suburban counterparts," said Randy Smith, president of the alliance, an advocacy group based in Oklahoma.

The Education Department hoped the meeting would show community college leaders that rural institutions are included in the Obama administration's plans, said John White, deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach. Some of the presidents expressed concern at the meeting that they were often left out in policy discussions related to community colleges...

Hunger up across U.S., especially in Appalachia

This from the Rural Blog:

An unprecedented number of Americans are seeking charity food, says a new study from the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Feeding America reports in a news release "more than 37 million people, one in eight Americans -- including 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors -- receive emergency food each year through the nation's network of food banks and the agencies they serve."
The data represents a 40 percent increase from the organization's last comprehensive study in 2006.

The God's Pantry's report, "Hunger in Central and Eastern Kentucky," says 310,170 people in the 50-county service area live in poverty and the group serves 12 of the 25 poorest counties in the nation. Among those served: Owsley and Clay counties, which the U.S. Census Bureau ranks as the third and fourth poorest counties in the country.

Rural Education

This from Education Week (subscription):

“Additional Learning Opportunities in Rural Areas:

Needs, Successes, and Challenges”

Expanded learning opportunities, such as “inter-sessions,” longer school days, after-school programs, and longer school years, should be used to help disadvantaged students not only in cities but also in rural areas, where students from low-income families are even less likely to complete high school, says a report from the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank. Rural schools face particular challenges in providing additional learning time for students, such as a lack of resources and professional-development opportunities for staff members...