Rural Matters

We wanted to know more about the rural school districts that serve high poverty communities so first we statistically rounded up the 7604 districts nationwide that have over half their students in a school that is physically located in a rural community. Then we identified the 800 – about 10 percent -- that have the highest rate of eligibility for the federal Title I program. That is the program providing funds for disadvantaged students. We’ll call these 800 high-poverty rural districts the "rural 800."

Continue reading to find out more about these districts and to see a chart of the 16 states where most Rural 800 districts are located.

Continue reading "The "Rural 800" Districts" »

Posted by Marty Strange at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The major education issue in the Mississippi Legislature in 2007 is full funding of the state’s school finance formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, known as MAEP. MAEP has only been fully funded once since it was passed in 1997. This year has marked a significant shift in the legislative budget process because for the first time citizens and the media have been allowed to be present at meetings. More than two dozen education and community groups from around the state are working together to secure funding. Currently at issue is whether the state will provide a 3% increase in at-risk funding for children in kindergarten through third grade. Governor Haley Barbour (R) has recently said he would support full funding of MAEP, but he previously opposed full funding and backed strategies to delay a vote on the issue. Some proponents of public education are also concerned that the 3% at-risk increase and/or full funding of the basic MAEP formula will be passed at the expense of other essential funding included in the House’s education bill (HB 238).

Posted by Robin Lambert at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)