Rural schools in the United States face an abundance of problems: budget cuts, shrinking enrollments, teacher shortages, poor internet.
Nowhere is that more true than in the South. In states like Alabama and Mississippi, around half of all public schools are located in rural areas.
Jackie Mader is the Mississippi bureau chief at The Hechinger Report, a non-profit news organization that covers eduction. She also blogs for EdWeek about rural schools.
Mader joins host Stephen Smith to talk about how rural schools in the South are dealing with these issues.
Last week we started a series on rural schools by looking at Vermont – a state where more than half of public school students are enrolled in rural districts.
A recent law, Act 46, encourages consolidation of smaller school districts there.
Daniel French is the former superintendent of Bennington-Rutland SU and writes about Act 46.
He calls Act 46 a “historic opportunity.”
French joins host Stephen Smith on the podcast to chat about why small school consolidation could be important for Vermont and other states around the country.
School in Smalltown, USA is changing. Over the past several decades, rural schools have suffered as enrollment has dropped and districts have merged.
Yet some estimate more than twenty percent of all public school students in the country go to school in rural districts.
We begin our series on rural schools by looking at Vermont, a state in the middle of a big fight over the role of its schools.
Over half of all students in Vermont go to rural schools.
Last year, the Vermont legislature passed law Act 46. It aims to provide better quality education for students through greater efficiency.
But not everyone agrees it will do that.
Erica Heilman produced this episode for her excellent podcast, Rumble Strip Vermont.