Agriculture Based Education Can Save Rural Schools & Communities

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 19.3 percent of the U.S. population, 13.4 million children under age 18, live in rural areas. Approximately one-quarter of American students are educated in rural schools, and yet, when education is discussed, the focus is generally on urban schools. Because the needs of rural schools are not much considered, many have been forced to close. Rural communities provide the infrastructure for America; our food and many raw materials to make products that provide the quality of life Americans are used to are produced in rural communities. Considering the important role that rural communities have on our nation’s infrastructure, ensuring the education of students in rural America is of utmost importance.

As rural schools throughout the United States are forced to close, they leave behind a trail of failing students and crumbling communities. James A. Bryant Jr, Appalachian State University, author of Killing Mayberry: The Crisis in Rural American Education, argues that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) 2002, was developed for urban schools and failed to take into consideration the unique needs and challenges rural schools face. Because of requirements and additional financial burdens NCLB placed on schools to meet its criteria for enrollment, testing, and specialized teachers, many rural schools were not able to balance the budget and were forced to close and consolidate (Bryant 8).

Mara Casey Tieken, author of Why Rural Schools Matter, says when rural schools consolidate into a larger school in another community, parent participation decreases, student participation in extra-curricular activities decreases, and academic performance and test grades suffer (Tieken and Auldridge-Reveles 936). Students who are less outgoing sometimes have difficulty integrating, feel anonymous, and get lost; absenteeism increases and often results in students falling behind and dropping out (Bard et al. 44).

According to Joe Bard, National Rural Education Task Force, “dropouts are three times more likely to be unemployed, 2-? times more likely to receive welfare benefits, and over three times more likely to be in prison than high school graduates” (Bard et al. 44). Because rural schools are often the heart of the community, when a school closes, it creates a sense of despair, property values decline, and a deterioration of the entire community begins (Tieken and Auldridge-Reveles 937).

Rural businesses that have already suffered with the decline of agriculture are hit even harder. The economic impact from the loss of the school results in even fewer jobs available and a lower tax base for infrastructure and education. The loss of schools, along with manufacturing and agriculture, has created a vicious cycle that is hard to recover from. Along with the rise in school closings, rural communities have seen an increase in drop-out rates, opioid addictions, and the number of adults remaining idle (McShane and Smarick 4). It is vital to success of students and the future of rural communities that rural schools remain open.

Charter schools offer an alternative for rural communities that are facing closure and for communities that have already been forced to close their school. Charter schools are publicly funded, privately run schools and are usually sponsored or “chartered” under the umbrella of a non-profit organization, university, or government agency. Believing that “competition [would] bring educational innovations”, Minnesota introduced the first charter school in 1991 (Colins 2). Charter schools offer the ability to incorporate innovative programs into the curriculum, allow flexibility in education, and allow parents and communities to have more control over their students’ education. Agriculture based charter schools offer unique learning opportunities for students and provide economic benefits for rural communities.

According to The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, incorporating food and farming into the curriculum helps fulfill state science requirements and address science, math, and social skills. The Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center, in Walton, Kansas, has seen tremendous success after transitioning to an agriculture themed charter school when their school faced closure in 2007. Walton is one of only two agriculture-based elementary schools in the country. Children learn through a hands-on curriculum based entirely around agriculture. Project-based learning allows them to apply the knowledge to produce something tangible rather than just writing it down on paper.

Because of the innovative program that engages students through its focus on agriculture, Walton’s students consistently rank in the top of the state for academic performance. In 2010, ninety-seven percent of Walton students tested at or above grade level in math. Ninety-four percent tested at or above grade level in reading (Newton Public Schools). The school in Walton, Kansas that was being forced to close for poor academic performance and low school enrollment now has a waiting list for students five years in advance and won the Governor’s Achievement Award two years in a row, which means the school ranked in the top five percent for the entire state.

Proponents of school consolidation often state financial savings as a benefit of closure and consolidation. But Mara Casey Tieken argues that the savings amount to very little of the budget (Tieken and Auldridge-Reveles 936), and Doug Feldman, Northern Kentucky University, says that while consolidating rural schools may seem attractive, it often does not result in the financial savings promised, and many times has unforeseen social consequences on the students, families, and community (Feldman 2006).

Agriculture based charter schools offer unique opportunities for creating revenue to help with school funding. At Walton, produce grown in the school garden is used in the cafeteria and helps offset costs of the school lunch program. The garden also provides revenue to help pay for school projects. Activities such as measuring, weighing, and grading eggs, then washing, packaging, and designing labels are incorporated into the curriculum and offer unique real-life skills and learning opportunities. Students sell the eggs and decide what to do with the funds. They build flower boxes for fundraisers while learning math; measuring, rounding to the nearest quarter, and adding and subtracting fractions. Making salsa from produce grown in the garden, then selling it as a fundraiser can be used in a culinary program that teaches measuring and math skills. Raising and processing chickens can be incorporated into a science-biology program and provide food for the cafeteria (20,000 birds per year can be processed under the State of Florida Limited Poultry License). Teaching a lesson in microbiology through cheesemaking is another learning opportunity for science.

Charter schools offer an alternative for rural communities, but they are not without risk. In his article, How Did Things Get So Polarized? The Battle Over Charter Schools, published in Harvard Ed Magazine, Zachary Jason states the lack of oversite has resulted in many failures and misuse of funds. Jason uses statistics to show that charter schools consistently have low academic performance, high rates of failure, and high teacher turnover. Along with statistics, many examples are given to show the lack of oversight and misuse of public funds, including one school that used its cafeteria at night to host an illegal night club. Some states allow for profit corporations to run charter schools. Disastrous consequences have resulted for students. Because of lack of oversight and accountability, many charter schools have low academic performance, and in some instances, organizations have started charter schools, siphoned public funds, and then closed abruptly halfway through the school year, leaving students without a school.

Despite the myriad of problems with unchecked charter schools that were not held accountable and failed as a result, rural communities facing school closure should consider chartering a school that is accountable to a community appointed board. In many rural communities, agriculture, economics, and education are intertwined. Much of the problem of low enrollment and high poverty rates among students stems from economics in agriculture. Rural communities have faced decades of economic turmoil, dwindling populations, and declining school enrollment as fallout from agriculture policies that have promoted consolidation and competition from imports and foreign investments in agriculture have made it difficult for farmers to remain in business. These policies have hollowed out rural communities, bankrupted farmers and businesses, and created a lower tax base for school funding.

Agriculture based charter schools offer educational opportunities for students and economic opportunities for the community and local farmers to provide food for the cafeteria in addition to what students grow. In Minnesota, a study on the economic Figure 1 National Farm to School Network impact of farm to school programs demonstrated that incorporating farm to school lunch programs have resulted in a greater portion of dollars remaining in the community (Figure 1 National Farm to School Network). These additional dollars directly affect the tax base and funding education.

In Walton, the whole community has rallied behind the school. As a result of their successful agriculture-based school program, three new businesses have opened. Community members have donated equipment, livestock, land, and funding to support the educational programs, and students are benefiting from it. “There are students who are so engaged in learning that they fight over who gets to shovel out the chicken coop” (How a Charter School Saved a Rural Farming Community).

Works Cited:

Bard, Joe, et al. National Rural Education Association Report. Rural Educator, vol. 27, no. 2, Winter 2006, p. 40-48. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ783851. Accessed 15 April 2020.

Collins, Timothy. Charter Schools: An Approach for Rural Education?. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, 1999, pp. 1-9, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED425896. Accessed 1 April 2020.

Feldman, Doug. Curriculum and Community Involvement. Mid-Western Educational Researcher, vol 19, no 1, Winter 2006, pp 33-34, https://www.mwera.org/MWER/documents/MWER-2006-Winter-19-1.pdf#page=35 Accessed 23 April 2020.

Hinrichs, Clare, Ph.D., et al. Growing the Links Between Farms and Schools: A How-To Guidebook for Pennsylvania Farmers, Schools and Communities. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Nov 2008, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED540871.pdf Accessed 11 April 2020.

Jason, Zachary. How Did Things Get So Polarized? The Battle over Charter Schools. Harvard Ed. Magazine, Summer 2017. pp 24-31, https://gse.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/edmag/pdfs/2017-SUM-22.pdf. Accessed 7 April 2020.

McShane, Michael Q., and Andy Smarick. No Longer Forgotten: The Triumphs and Struggles of Rural Education in America. School Administrator, vol. 76, no. 5, May 2019, p. 42.

National Farm to School Network. Farm to School Fuels Economic Growth and Job Creation. 2017. https://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/EconomicImpacts-FactSheet.pdf Accessed 10 April 2020.

Newton Public Schools. Walton Rural Life Center. April 2020. https://w-usd373- ks.schoolloop.com/media Accessed 15 April 2020.

Tieken, Mara Casey, and Trevor Ray Auldridge-Reveles. Rethinking the School Closure Research: School Closure as Spatial Injustice. Review of Educational Research, vol. 89, no. 6, Dec. 2019, pp. 917–953. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654319877151. Accessed 9 February 2020.

Washington State Charter School Association. How a Charter School Saved a Rural Farming Community. 2012 https://wacharters.org/2012/10/11/how-a-charter-school-saved-a-ruralfarming-community/. Accessed 7 April 2020.

United States, Census Bureau. New Census Data Show Differences Between Urban and Rural Populations. Dec 2016. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16- 210.html. Accessed 10 April 2020.?