Rural Matters

In an earlier post , we asked a question about how rural schools have addressed housing needs as a way to recruit and retain teachers. Here’s the original question:

Our school has teacher retention problems due to many things, including lack of housing near the school. We are thinking about buying a house that we could rent out to new teachers and are wondering if this has been tried before and if it was successful.

We’ve received several examples of specific ideas that rural schools are using as well as additional ideas for addressing this vexing problem.

We thought these ideas deserved their own post, so we’ve listed them below (some are also in the comment section of the original post).

If you would like to contact the person who sent the idea, please email Rural Matters editor and we will help put you in contact with the person who submitted the idea.

Thanks to everyone who shared their knowledge. Please feel free to add to the discussion by adding a comment below.

SOLUTIONS TO RURAL TEACHER HOUSING DILEMMAS

NEW! September 4, 2007 FROM CALIFORNIA: There are schools that provide teacherages here in northern California. Kashia, a school of 14 students, has a teacherage. I believe the teacher pays a small amount of rent for it each month. There are other examples of this in isolated rural areas. In Zenia, CA there were two houses on the school property; one for the teacher and the other for the bus driver/maintenance person.

FROM MONTANA: In rural Eastern Montana small schools often have a “teacherage”, a small house near the school, or even on school property, that they offer as free housing in order to keep teachers. These rural schools are sometimes 50 miles from the nearest small town, so providing free housing is essential.

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FROM NEW MEXICO: In New Mexico, a rural school (Tatum Municipal Schools) established building construction classes for high school students, bought materials and had them build housing (for teachers, I think) owned by the district. They report good success with this.... Another New Mexico school who has been doing this for some time is Santa Fe High School...although not necessarily a rural school.

Continue reading "Solutions for Rural Teacher Housing Question" »

Posted by Robin Lambert at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Governor John Baldacci (D) was re-elected in November and has proposed one of the most sweeping consolidation measures in recent history. He wants to reduce the state’s 290 school districts to just 26 and eliminate superintendents and many other administrative positions in the current districts, though he wants to have a full-time principal in each school. He says the move will save the state $250 million over three years. State Superintendent of Education Sue Gendron supports the proposal and says it will decrease property taxes. (See Rural Matters blog at www.blog.ruraledu.org for more information.) The Governor’s proposal is part of his $6.4 billion biennial budget for 2007-09, which means the Appropriations Committee will review and work on the bill instead of the Education Committee. If the Appropriations Committee elects to remove the “cost savings” portion of the proposal, it will have to replace the “savings” to re-build the budget. The Education Committee will address the governance aspects of the plan. Baldacci has also called for a freeze on property tax valuations and for the state to make good on its 2004 promise to fund 55% of the costs of local public schools. Several other bills introduced would either force some other type of consolidation and/or encourage other districts to share in purchasing and some central office functions. Look for fireworks in Maine over this controversial issue.

Posted by Robin Lambert at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Maine’s Governor John Baldacci has presented a plan to do away with the state’s 290 school districts (they share 152 superintendents) and replace them with 26 districts, each with its own superintendent. Each district would also have a regionally elected board.

There is not much detail about how the elimination of governance units will improve education. Maine’s schools do very well by national standards. But, Baldacci claims his proposal will even out spending between districts and save taxpayers $250m over the next three years--mostly by reducing administrative costs. Those projected savings do not, however, include offsetting costs of consolidation--things like transition expenses, new facilities for headquarters for the mega-districts, and contract buy-outs. There’s more information in newspaper reports here and here. You can read the plan here and find a lot of additional information here.

Baldacci’s proposal is not particularly surprising to most people in Maine. Several years ago the state changed the funding formula in ways that are particularly detrimental to small districts. Baldacci’s proposal is not the only consolidation proposal on the table, but it is the most extensive. Susan Gendron, the State’s Education Commission says she supports Baldacci’s plan.

What is surprising is the apparent willingness of some national think tank types to endorse the idea. Check out this January 28th article by Beth Quimby in the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram In it, Jack Jennings of the Center for Education Policy is quoted saying, “This is a very substantial reform in education. This is a courageous thing for a politician to do.” And Kathy Christie at the Education Commission of the States is quoted as saying: “It takes nerves and you know you are going to be blasted.”

Since politicians, think tanks, and journalists tend to recommend all kinds of ways to improve teaching and the running of schools, it seems fair to apply some of these recommended approaches to the proposal in Maine. We’ll take one “education improvement” imperative from current fad, one from NCLB, one from critics of NCLB, and one from progressive educators and apply each to Baldacci’s proposal.

Continue reading "Applying Educational Imperatives to a Wholesale State “Reform”" »

Posted by Robin Lambert at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)