Gainesville R-V School District is the “Home of the Bulldogs.” Just 14 miles from the Arkansas border in south-central Missouri, it is one of four schools in the county. It is the largest, with roughly 600 students attending K-12.

Right now, the school district plans for the coming years with a general knowledge of how many students will be attending. If the next Missouri education commissioner is a proponent of a voucher system, that all goes away.

Missouri’s rural school districts and agricultural educators are concerned about the hiring of a new state education commissioner next year. The possibility of Gov. Eric Greitens pushing for an advocate of charter schools and a voucher system to lead the state’s schools troubles Jon Wilson, Gainesville R-V High School’s agriculture educator.

“If the charter schools are choice and vouchers are given, that is going to impact our rural school districts as a whole,” Wilson says. “If a student has a better opportunity 30 miles down the road to play a sport or take a different set of classes, vouchers provide them the ability to move back and forth,” he explains. “It would be hard for our district to plan for future growth, future expansion, increases in technology, doing the basic things to improve the education system — never knowing that number, if it is constantly fluctuating.”

GOVERNOR’S TAKE: Gov. Eric Greitens addresses the Missouri Farm Bureau group during its annual meeting. His speech did not discuss education, however. He is an advocate of school vouchers and charter schools, two ideas that trouble rural Missouri teachers.

Change in leadership
In a tumultuous year, the Missouri State Board of Education, an eight-member board in charge of hiring and firing top personnel at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, has seen appointments by Greitens come and go. Finally, early this month, the board voted to oust education commissioner Margie Vandeven.

According to Pam Rowland, teacher recruitment and retention coordinator for Missouri Teach Ag, educators approved of the job Vandeven was doing at the department. “She was a proponent of public schools and supporter of agriculture education,” Rowland says.

Both Rowland and Wilson are members of the Missouri Farm Bureau. During the recent annual meeting, they presented two resolutions that urged the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to continue to use public funding to support public education that is accessible to all students — urban and rural.

The 500-member delegation that represents more than 126,000 members of the Missouri Farm Bureau approved the measure.

Haves, have-nots
Both Rowland and Wilson believe charter schools will not come to rural Missouri.

“[Schools] in St. Louis and Kansas City will see the money,” Wilson says. “Rural schools will be left behind, as usual.”

Rowland adds, “Those kids in the city will have greater advantages than our rural kids.”

When funds are diverted to charter school systems, it leaves less money for small school districts. Wilson says consolidation in rural Missouri is likely, affecting more than just the school and students. “I could see maybe some schools close,” he adds. “It is a possibility, and it concerns me.”

For many rural communities, the school is the largest employer in the town. Consolidation would remove an economic driver in these communities. Teachers, custodians, bus drivers, maintenance workers, nurses, janitorial staff — all of these positions would be eliminated or moved to another town. The town’s economic base would suffer.

“Some schools in our county are struggling to hold on— but that town, they will do anything to keep those schools going,” he adds. “It might be the only thing they have. Take that away, and then what?”

Call to action
The next education commissioner must pass through confirmation hearings. Rural voters can impact this process.

“Contact your senators,” Wilson says. “Ask your senator for support of rural schools and in making the best decisions to help rural schools, rather than a new board possibly funding that money in a different direction.”

Rowland wants the new commissioner to be one who looks at rural schools and rural Missouri as a priority.

“The school is the heartbeat of the community,” she says. “We need to keep it strong, with a commissioner who believes in public education and understands the importance of rural schools.”