Rural school districts fear they are at a disadvantage when competing for stimulus grants

Some rural school administrators fear that the Obama administration's education policies give an edge to urban schools. Groups like the Rural School and Community Trust say that initiatives outlined in the Race to the Top Fund established by the stimulus plan "fail to recognize the distinctive problems facing rural school districts, Michele McNeal of Education Week reports.

The Race to the Top Fund will provide competitive grants to states based on large-scale education improvement. One criterion for evaluating state plans is the creation of charter schools. McNeal points to states like South Dakota, with fewer than 300 students in half of the school districts, and Montana, with fewer than 100 students in half the districts, as examples of rural areas that may be penalized for their small populations. She quotes South Dakota Democratic state Sen. Sandy Jerstad: "Charter schools just don’t work for us, and I hate to see the whole issue of charter schools be a criterion for federal funding."

Rural educators took further offense when Education Secretary Arne Duncan (right) wrote, "Rural schools shouldn’t let their unique challenges become excuses for keeping the status quo" in an Education Week commentary, McNeal reports. She notes that the unique challenges rural educators face include teacher and principal recruitment, small central-office staffs and peer-review of teachers. McNeal writes that most of the secretary's answers at at a town hall in Hamlet, N.C., part of the Obama administration's Rural Tour, didn't "distinguish the problems of rural districts from those of their urban counterparts." (AP photo by Charles Rex Arbogast)

The Department of Education responds to the worries of rural educators by saying that charter school creation is only one criterion of the Race to the Top Fund, and that nothing in the fund disadvantages states with large rural populations. McNeal quotes Race to the Top Fund Director Joanne Weiss: "We’re definitely very concerned about helping to make sure rural schools have all of the different tools and supports to improve.” (Read more)