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)

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer’s budget proposal includes increasing overall state aid to public schools, and a loan-forgiveness program for teachers in rural areas. But, another issue has become the major debate this session: full-day kindergarten. Indian education programs in the state are also under-funded in current versions of the budget.

Posted by Robin Lambert at 02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Montana has a $1 billion state surplus, but is also in the midst of a school funding lawsuit. Governor Brian Schweitzer has proposed a $40 million inflationary increase in state aid, $25 million for all-day kindergarten, and a $20 million increase in “per educator” payments to help stave off the loss of Montana teachers to neighboring states that have higher salaries. In late January the Montana Quality Education Coalition (MQEC) released a study saying that $100 million more for the next seven years is needed for education in the state, primarily for programs to help at-risk students meet standards. MQEC won a funding lawsuit against the state three years ago, and the state must present a funding plan to the court by July of this year.

Posted by Robin Lambert at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)