Ga Education Advocates

June 1–As the Obama administration continues to seek an overhaul of No Child Left Behind, a change that would give states and school districts more decision making, Senator Jay Rockefeller is pursuing legislation that would provide more support for education in rural communities.Rockefeller is co-sponsoring the Office of Rural Education Policy Act that, if adopted, would form an Office or Rural Education inside the current Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the Department of Education.According to Rockefeller’s Press Secretary Andrew J. Beckner, this legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.In a Congressional Record Statement, Rockefeller noted that rural education is becoming increasingly important in the United States public school system with nearly one quarter of the students in America attend rural schools and over half of the schools in West Virginia in rural areas.The proposed act cites the Digest of Education Statistics reported by the National Center for Education Statistics; “The number of students attending rural schools increased by over 11 percent, from 10.5 million to nearly 11.7 million between the 2004-05 and 2008-09 school years.”“Students in rural areas face unique challenges — such as recruiting and retaining teachers and having less access to advanced courses,” said Rockefeller. “People in West Virginia and other states with largely rural populations deserve the same access to opportunities that are afforded to our more urban areas — including healthcare, technology and importantly, education.”In a press release, Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and co-sponsor of the legislation said, “The goal here is to allow rural schools to focus on students in the classroom rather than red tape in the bureaucracy. Students in rural areas deserve a fair shake at the resources and opportunities afforded to students who live in urban areas.”According to the proposed Office of Rural Education Policy Act, rural schools face “unique challenges” such as low enrollment numbers, disparity in funding, geographic isolation, difficulty recruiting qualified teachers and the inability to offer advanced and diverse courses.The Office of Rural Education would be run by a director who would work to assess and address issues of rural education including producing an annual report on the condition of rural education, promoting partnerships with community-based organizations and advocate financing or rural schools.