Advocates say charter schools can rebuild rural communities; critics question source of funding

Charter schools are few and far between in rural America, accounting for only 16 percent of all charter schools, with only 111 of the 785 rural charter schools located in remote areas, Katie Ash reports for Education Week. "But proponents of charters say those independent public schools can breathe new economic life into rural communities with dwindling populations by adding jobs and attracting families to a town, even as they provide an alternative to local schools that, like big-city schools, may be struggling."

Some rural charters have even been found "to stave off consolidation and keep schools open in small communities, said Andy Smarick, a partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a Boston-based nonprofit consulting firm that works with schools to improve achievement," Ash writes.

"Rural charters face a host of challenges that set them apart from their urban counterparts, charter experts say," Ash writes. "Besides a lack of suitable facilities, they have smaller budgets and fewer support services than urban charters; a smaller pool of students, teachers and administrators to draw from; and, often, particularly tense relationships with their local school districts as they compete for limited resources and relatively few students."

Proponents say charter schools offer families more choices, but critics refute that idea, Ash writes. Kai A. Schafft, an associate professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, told Ash, "The charter school advocates present [rural charters] mostly in terms of 'this is a good thing because it results in more choice,' but the problem with that argument is that the choice comes at a potentially significant cost, and that is the institutional undermining of the option that already exists."

In fact, the Rural School and Community Trust, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, rarely supports charter schools in rural areas, Ash writes. Spokesman Robert Mahaffey told her, "From a resource standpoint, where we come down when it comes to charters is, first and foremost, how are they being funded? Are you in essence draining essential resources from the traditional public school?'"

Currently, eight mostly rural states—Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia—don't allow charters schools, Smarick told Ash. (Read more)