“If you shut down schools, you destroy a town.” Washington has long designed education policy to deal with urban and suburban challenges, often overlooking the unique problems that face rural schools.. With a new administration that prefers “school-choice” approaches — favoring charter schools and private-school vouchers so parents can opt out of public schools and bring taxpayer dollars with them — the nation’s rural schools are left to wonder about their fate. Education Sec'y DeVos’s emphasis on school choice means very little out here in the wilds of Maine, where the closest “good” schools are all impossibly far away.. Some rural communities do have a private school, but they are often deeply religious, & online learning sn’t always an option as rural areas often struggle with poor access to the Internet, making online learning difficult.' School Choice, Betsy, is NO choice.'
At www.washingtonpost.com
