Habitat for Humanity: Stories

There are many untold stories that go unnoticed for a number of reasons. The area we were working in has very limited access to consistent cell phone service and internet access is pretty spread out from library to library.

One evening, we were invited to dinner with the church we were inhabiting for the week. There was a couple there who I became acquainted with, Betty and Frank.

They have been long-time residents of rural America and have seen a lot in their days. One of the questions I had for them was about the public schools in the area of Cape Charles.

Frank had described how the one public school in the county had closed down back in 1989 (the one I frequently drove past each day). This school was the closest school in the area for many but it still remains closed to this day. When asked why they had closed it, Frank pointed towards reduction in attendance or just low numbers of students in the school itself. The classrooms contained 10 to 12 students per teacher and it was no longer economical to maintain the school.

He described the difficulty of closing the school since the graduation rates were through the roof, 85-90% and the college acceptances were similar. So it wasn't a matter of performance, it was a matter of money. So I had asked him "What happens to the remaining students who still want to or need to go to school who can no longer go to this public school?"

In response to this question, Frank talks about how many of the students who would have normally have gone to this school were shipped out to other counties to attend school... Which is pretty ridiculous if you understand how spread out this area of VA is.

So this is not a recent development in education. It's not new to close down schools for bad reasons. It's all a matter of money and bottom lines. This time around the bottom line is about placing blame on the right parties without ever looking at the actual impact on the lives of students and their families.

I can only hope that our endeavors as urban educators are praised as worthwhile rather than cut short because of some skewed economic incompetence.