For Immediate Release, August 30, 2001
CONTACT:
Kathy Westra, (202) 955-7177 or Greg Malhoit, (919) 833-4541
Rural Trust Creates New Center To Address Funding Needs of
Nation's Rural Schools Gregory C. Malhoit Named To Direct
Rural Education Finance Center
Washington, DC
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.
To contact the REFC, call or write:
Gregory C. Malhoit, Director
Rural Education Finance Center
3344 Hillsborough St., Suite 302
Raleigh, NC 27607
Phone: (919) 833-4541
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.ruraledu.org
The Rural School and Community Trust (Rural Trust) is a
nonprofit educational organization dedicated to enlarging
student learning and improving community life by
strengthening relationships between rural schools and
communities and engaging students in community-based public
work. Through advocacy, research, and outreach, the Rural
Trust strives to create a more favorable environment for
rural community schooling, for student work with a public
audience and use, and for more active community participation
in schooling. Founded as the Annenberg Rural Challenge in
1995, the Rural Trust today works with more than 700 rural
elementary and secondary schools in 35 states. Its policy
program aims to help rural people be effective and
responsible participants in important policy issues affecting
schools and communities.
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