Alabama:  Save Alabama's Small Schools

The group Save Alabama's Small Schools has secured rural representation on a state distance learning committee and is working to see that small public schools are represented in state facilities funding.

Arkansas:  Advocates for Community and Rural Education

Advocates for Community and Rural Education (ACRE) in Arkansas has mobilized people all over the state to become involved in state and local policymaking. As a result they have seen the legislature become more attentive and less hostile to rural and small districts.   There was no attempt to force consolidation this year, and schools got higher overall funding, plus increased funding for students in poverty and students in Alternative Learning Environments.  In addition, the state must now give districts a longer notification timeline before the district can be put on "fiscal distress."  The fiscal distress provision has been used to force consolidation of some small districts, so the new notification period gives districts more time to correct problems. 

Learn more about ACRE.
http://www.aracre.org/

Mississippi:  Mississippi Education Working Group

The Mississippi Education Working Group has been at the forefront of statewide efforts to secure full funding for the state's school finance formula.  It also works in local communities, especially in the Delta, to engage citizens in school improvement and to provide leadership, analysis, and technical support in a variety of efforts to improve public education.  The MEWG works to address the dual system of education in the Mississippi Delta that provides private education and resources for white students and starves the public education system obstructing educational and economic opportunities for black students and their communities.  MEWG is part of Southern Echo.  

Read more about MEWG and Southern Echo. 

http://southernecho.org/mewg/index.html
http://southernecho.org

North Carolina:  North Carolina Education Working Group

Rural communities in the North Carolina Education Working Group are forming study circles to learn about the state's Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund, how it's being used in their districts, and what can be done in their schools to improve education.

South Carolina:  The South Carolina Rural Education Grassroots Committee

The South Carolina Rural Education Grassroots Committee is a passionate advocate for school funding and has also helped fight privatization measures like tuition tax credits. They are working to combat the state's serious dropout problem.

West Virginia:  Challenge West Virginia

Challenge West Virginia has worked to bring attention to the harm done to students and their education by long bus rides that result from school consolidation. They have pushed bills in the legislature to limit the length of bus rides and many members of the group have become local school board members.

Learn more about Challenge West Virginia. 

www.challengewv.org