Arkansas works to attract home-grown teachers

Community Foundation of the Ozarks has launched an initiative to hire rural teachers. Ozarks Teacher Corps provides scholarships of $4,000 for two years if college juniors and seniors chosen for the corps agree agree to teach in a rural school district for three years after graduation, reports Susan Atteberry Smith for the News-Leader. Funding from new private donors to CFO will double the number of scholarships offered to incoming students.
 
CFO President Gary Funk came up with the idea of providing scholarships to "grow their own" teachers, said CFO Executive Director Julie Leeth. When students come back to their home communities, Leeth calls it a "major coup." Said student Missouri State University Mykie Nash about returning home to teach, "Everybody goes to the Friday night football game. I've always loved that, and I've always thought that was important in education and in raising my own kids." (Read more)