Who's Looking Out for Rural Schools?

Rural schools - and the 9 million students they serve - stand to lose big from the Trump-DeVos privatization agenda

BY TIM WALKER —NEA Today - Edited By: Giovanna Bechard

As the most northeastern town in the United States, Madawaska also has the unique status of being one of the “four corners” of the nation. Situated in Aroostook County on the St. Johns River that forms part of the U.S.-Canadian border, Madawaska’s residents are deeply proud of their Acadian roots, which gives this small town a cultural affinity with its neighbors to the north. “We’re pretty far up here,” says Gisele Dionne, superintendent of Madawaska public schools. “I look out my window and see the mountains of Canada.”

The district serves about 440 students in a preK-6 elementary school and a 7-12 middle/ high school. The two schools are bedrocks of the community, resilient even as financial challenges have mounted over the past decade.

“Economically, we’re a one–horse town,” says Dionne, a former high school chemistry teacher. “We’re dependent on our paper mill. As many mills across the state have closed, ours went through a rough patch as well, but we’ve stabilized.”

The arduous process of getting a school budget approved has been the bane of previous superintendents, one of the reasons why Dionne—when she took the job in 2015—was the 15th superintendent in a dozen years.

Still, “support of our public schools remains very strong,” says Dionne. “We have a lot of pride in our schools and our students.” This may be mystifying for private school voucher and charter school advocates to hear. That communities are profoundly dissatisfied with public schools is one of the myths used to champion policies that are wrapped in euphemisms such as “choice” and “competition” but have, where they have taken hold, often exacerbated the financial plight of rural schools.

levels, and the Trump Bonny Plourde-Tingley, left, teacher at Madawaska Elementary School, administration is determined to impose with Gisele Dionne, superintendent of Madawaska public schools. (photo: Becky Shea) deep cuts at the federal level to help pay for its school privatization agenda. Why “Competition” Doesn’t Serve Students in Rural “If more money is cut, we are going to suffer Communities tremendously,” says Bonny Plourde-Tingley, a teacher at Madawaska Elementary School Cyber-charters, an enormously lucrative and president of the Madawaska Education sector, have a notoriously poor record of Association. “We’re back on our feet, but we providing any type of quality education to can’t take too many other hits.” students. Still, the schools have been draining funds from rural districts, and have been The Crisis Facing Rural Schools quickly endorsed by DeVos as the option for rural students who may not have access The challenges facing rural schools are staggering. Over the course of her career in to private institutions or brick-and-mortar charter schools. Madawaska, Bonny Plourde-Tingley has watched as program after program—music and arts, language immersion classes, physical education—get disassembled by state and local budget cuts—not to mention the reduction in cafeteria workers, bus drivers, In 2013, three students in Madawaska signed up for Maine Connection Academy, along with Maine Virtual Academy, one of two virtual charter schools in the state, both managed by for-profit companies. custodians and administrative staff. “It was only three students, but in a district “We won’t be able to give our most disadvantaged students what they need. These are the kids who come to school hungry,” says Plourde-Tingley. “These are the kids that need a place to be right after school. A few years ago, we lost our after-school computer club that really helped those students who don’t have these tools at home.” Help from Washington, D.C., has hit a roadblock, and in May, the Trump like ours, you feel that loss. Every student counts,” says Giselle Dionne. “What made it worse is that we had to pay for the tuition out of our general budget.” Only one of those students graduated— hardly surprising given both schools’ graduation rate is far below the state average—67 percent for Connections Academy and a miserable 37 percent for Virtual Academy. administration unveiled a budget proposal that slashed the federal investment in public education programs by a whopping 13.6%, many of them benefiting the nation’s most economically disadvantaged students. The NEA and MEA continue to work to fight the DeVos “school choice” agenda, and not only talk about what is best for kids, but do what is best in our neighborhood public schools. It doesn’t matter how their The funding cut for public schools would instead be slated to pay for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ plans—a $20 billion initiative to expand private school vouchers nationwide. Congress, at least for now, has not approved the funding for this program, but no one expects DeVos to retreat from pushing this agenda. 15 www.maineea.org • October 2017 proponents try to disguise them—education savings accounts, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships—vouchers are destructive and misguided schemes that use taxpayer dollars to “experiment with our children’s education without any evidence of real, lasting positive results,” says NEA President Eskelsen García.