As rural kids head back to class next week, many of them will return to
schools with leaky roofs, low-paid teachers, and a sparse supply of computers. But they will have a new friend, as the Rural School and Community Trust (Rural Trust) launches a national effort to improve the way
rural schools are funded. The Rural Trust today announced the establishment of a Rural Education Finance Center (REFC), and the
appointment of Gregory C. Malhoit as its director. The new center will provide services to rural groups across the nation who are working to
improve funding for rural schools and the children they serve. "School finance is one of the most critical policy issues facing rural
schools, and yet rural people are largely absent from public debate on the subject,"
said Rural Trust president Rachel Tompkins in announcing the Center.
"The Rural Education Finance Center will draw more attention to the problems,
build an informed constituency for change, and help forge solutions that provide rural schoolchildren with greater equity."
The Center's establishment comes at a time when rural schools throughout the country are being squeezed by three forces:
- An inadequate local tax base from which to build and support schools;
- Resistance to paying local property taxes; and
- Policy environments in many states that treat rural schools as a burden on economically wealthier areas.
In addition, rural schools are increasingly the focus of legal action contending that state funding formulas are not equitable or adequate for rural children. As legislative remedies are devised, there is a need for
rural citizens to participate in the process of creating new, more equitable funding mechanisms.
It is against this backdrop that the REFC is being established. The
Center will work to:
- Help rural people and organizations act as responsible and effective advocates for equitable funding for all public schools serving rural communities.
- Support good research, sponsoring rigorous scholarly research on school finance issues that are critical to rural schools and communities, and
sharing the findings in plain language.
- Promote good fiscal management, identifying and promoting "best practices" for rural schools, developing the skills to use these practices, and advocating public policies that encourage their use.
- Provide legal support on current legal issues involving school
finance systems. While the REFC does not enter into litigation or represent groups in court proceedings, it may provide "friend of the court" briefs.
- Monitor and report on policy, tracking developments affecting rural school finance nationwide, providing a central clearinghouse for timely information on how these developments affect rural schools
and communities, and improving understanding of rural issues among the general public and the news media.
Gregory C. Malhoit Named to Direct the REFC. In announcing the REFC, Rural Trust president Tompkins also announced the
appointment of Gregory C. Malhoit as the new Center's director. "We are delighted that this project will get off the ground under the direction
of someone with the impressive legal and advocacy credentials of Greg
Malhoit," she said. "His experience as an advocate for social and economic
justice in the fields of public education and civil rights law makes him an
ideal leader in our efforts to assure educational equity and adequacy for rural schoolchildren."
Since 1990, Malhoit has served as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center, a statewide
multi-issue policy research and advocacy organization focused on economic and legal
issues that impact poor and rural communities. During his tenure with the Justice Center, Malhoit led its education reform program, which focused
on equity and adequacy in the state school finance system, the racial
achievement gap, the needs of Limited-English Proficient (LEP) students, and high stakes testing. From 1974 until 1990, he served as Executive
Director of East Central Community Legal Services, a legal aid program serving 100,000 low-income people in a five-county region of North
Carolina.
Malhoit is a 1973 graduate of the University of Nebraska School of Law who
has litigated cases at all levels of the state and has served on the faculty of N.C. Central University School of Law. He has also lectured on
a broad array of education topics both in North Carolina and nationally. |
