"Amid withering economy, Nevada considers eliminating rural schools; One-room schoolhouses fade into past" by Ashley Powers, Los Angeles Times | January 25, 2009
MOUNT CHARLESTON, Nev. - .... A potential victim of the nation's economic crisis.... the survival of far-flung schoolhouses - an icon of rural America, immortalized in the "Little House on the Prairie" book and TV series, and often a community hub in no-stoplight towns....
Rural school advocates say funding gaps make the schools easy targets. Per-pupil costs are higher in smaller schools, and political power is usually centered in cities. Bigger schools have a wider range of classes and more specialists, such as art and music teachers. But rural school supporters say children in large schools receive little individual attention, spend hours riding buses and miss out on parents playing a role in their education.
Even in a robust economy, Superintendent Lou Obermeyer said, her district in San Diego County eventually would have discussed closing the Palomar Mountain School, where enrollment had dwindled from about 50 students to seven. The district, which laid off teachers last year, simply couldn't afford to keep it open.
In Nevada, whose tourism and construction industries have imploded, the Clark County School District - the nation's fifth-largest - must cut about $120 million from a budget of more than $2 billion. Among the options: closing Lundy Elementary and another one-room school in Goodsprings that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lundy's per-pupil cost is estimated at more than three times the district average. The district expects that closing Lundy would save about $240,000 a year. Lundy's students, in kindergarten through the fifth grade, would be bused about 75 minutes each morning, along with middle and high school students, to the town of Indian Springs.
So NO ONE cares about CARBON FOOTPRINTS then, huh? Pffffft!
Hey, RICHERS aren't used to being treated like shit!
--more--"
