This website offers information and resources for community members, school leaders, families, and youth that are facing the forced closure of their rural school and want to fight to keep it open. It is especially meant for folks that are affected by discriminatory school closures—that is, closures forced upon low-income and Black and Brown rural communities. These communities have typically faced decades of resource inequity; closure is punishment for someone else’s crime. To be clear, this resource is not for communities fighting closure in an effort to hoard opportunities or avoid desegregation.
This resource was developed in partnership with the Rural Community Alliance, which has fought school closures in Arkansas for more than 20 years. These recommendations emerged through conversations with community leaders, school leaders, policymakers, and researchers who have successfully fought the closure of their school or learned from those who have. This website is evolving. Contact me (Mara Tieken) at mtieken@bates.edu to suggest changes or tell me how you’re using it.