By Nick Fouriezos for the Mile Markers newsletter via The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Lily Böhlke for Commonweath News Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration

Rural students are the least likely to attend college or earn a degree - a problem exacerbated in recent years by persistent shortages of both rural educators and rural guidance counselors.

"The pandemic has pushed college and career readiness to the back burner, if it's even on the stove at all anymore," says Rick Dalton, the CEO and President of CFES Brilliant Pathways.

Short for "College for Every Student," his New England-based nonprofit trained more than 2,500 College and Career readiness advisors in 2021, including teachers and parents, secretaries and coaches, school bus drivers and cafeteria workers.

The concept: If rural areas can't staff up to address counselor shortages, they can at least equip their current educators with the knowledge they need to offer counsel.

"It takes a village," Dalton says. "Let's make sure the village has the knowledge it needs."

These "quasi-counselors," as Dalton calls them, attend four 30-minute virtual courses, learning about everything from FAFSA completion to nontraditional careers within growing fields like health care.

They graduate with a professional certificate from Middlebury College and have continued access to online resources with the latest information about college and financial aid.

That education is especially valuable when you consider that only about 25% of the counselors at high schools have received any professional development around college advising.

"Everybody who has contact with our kids needs to be delivering that message," Dalton says. "You can do it: Here's how."

Dalton has ambitious goals to expand the program, hoping to train 50,000 advisers in the next five years - a goal that's been made more attainable by the widespread adoption of virtual instruction during the pandemic.

When Dalton first began his work, a lot of the national focus was on the needs of students in urban areas, where 65% of the students that CFES Brilliant Pathways come from.

As of late, though, his organization has increased need with rural students who are getting "the short end of the stick," as Dalton says.

Rural students graduate from high school at slightly higher rates than their urban or suburban peers, but it remains challenging to get the resources needed to help them take that next step.

"People want to spend money where there is a significant density of students, and where they think they can have better bang for your buck," says Dalton, who knows a few things about rural challenges himself.

The Essex, New York native's regular commute includes a 20-minute ferry ride across Lake Champlain and then a half hour drive - hardly abnormal for him or other upstate New Yorkers whose work often centers around Middlebury or Burlington in Vermont.

"Just to let you know how rural life is here," Dalton quips, while taking our Zoom meeting from the front seat of his pickup truck.

Students Earn Degrees with College Coaching

Counseling is taking on new forms in other ways, and not just for high schoolers.

A number of organizations have formed in recent years to provide college coaching to nontraditional students.

One such company is ReUp, which specializes in helping people who have dropped out of college to finish their degrees.

Most of these students are adult learners over 25, now working full-time jobs.

Working with its own 500,000-person database and information provided by partner schools and states, ReUp reaches out and provides free coaching to those still interested in earning their degrees.

There are 110 million Americans that could have access to greater economic opportunity right in the areas they live with more education, says Terah Crews, the CEO of ReUp.

The need is particularly great in rural areas.

"Anecdotally, we see rural working adults have some of the greatest opportunity for financial security growth - and they are being left behind the most in that journey," Crews says.

I've been surprised in my rural reporting to discover that there are vast resources available to rural students, particularly low-income students, to help them earn degrees ... if they know about them.

That's the gap programs like ReUp can fill, a challenge colleges are struggling to address with limited marketing, recruitment, and advising budgets.

In four years, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania has been able to re-enroll 133 students through ReUp, says Thomas Fletcher, vice president for enrollment management.

ReUp doesn't charge the students it coaches. Instead, it charges the school, and each contract is different: for Bloomsburg, it charges 28% of the student's tuition each semester, then 37% their graduating semester.

"The decision, in my mind, was pretty simple," Fletcher says. "Do we want 72% of tuition and revenue, or zero of it?"

ReUp has roughly 50 partners, a number of which are rural serving, including places like Arkansas Technical University and Texas State University.

Most schools work with ReUp to increase enrollment across majors, but some focus on just one area. And in some cases, states will contract with ReUp to try to fill a specific workforce need.

That raises the question of whether ReUp might steer students into the degrees or professions that their partner institutions are paying for, regardless of whether it's in that student's best interests.

However, Crews says they work to match students with programs for which they have already completed some credits.

That means the student has already shown interest in that profession - and that it would be more affordable for the student to try to finish that degree, rather than completely restart on a different track.

"These are populations that most institutions won't even touch, because they say it's way too hard," Crews says.

Nick Fouriezos wrote this article for the Mile Markers newsletter via The Daily Yonder.


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Student loan forgiveness took center stage on Thursday at the American Federation of Teachers conference.

The Biden administration has canceled more than $62 billion in federal student debt for more than 871,000 public service workers nationwide, including teachers.

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke at the conference, thanking educators for their work for children's well-being. She told them the administration sees a "future with affordable health care, affordable child care, and paid leave - not for some, but for all."

"We see a future where every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, and a future where no teacher has to struggle with the burden of student loan debt," she said. "So, as an example, our administration has forgiven student loan debt for nearly 5 million Americans."

She pointed out that federal student debt relief plans, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, face potential threats from legal challenges and some resistance from Republicans in Congress.

A Pennsylvania recipient of student loan forgiveness introduced Vice President Harris. Brittany Shoup, a member of Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers Local 400, is a special-education teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Shoup said she had heard about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, but most people who applied for it didn't receive it during the last administration.

"The Biden/Harris administration fixed PSLF and made the process easy," she said. "So I applied and later had my student loans forgiven. This is a huge weight off my shoulders. And now, I help my fellow teachers get the debt forgiveness they deserve."

The AFT conference wrapped up Thursday in Houston, with more than 3,500 educators in attendance.


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As summer winds down and North Carolina students prepare to return to school, the focus shifts to the urgent need for better public education funding.

The future of North Carolina school funding may hinge on Leandro v. North Carolina a decadeslong court battle about the financial challenges many districts face.

Matthew Ellinwood, director of the Education and Law Project at the North Carolina Justice Center, stressed the crucial role of state funding in ensuring a quality education for every child.

"We're waiting to see what the decision will be for that but there's a lot at stake for families who are feeling these lack of resources in their schools locally," Ellinwood observed. "People need to understand the huge role that the state plays in funding our schools locally, because of what our Constitution said and the rights that it provides to families."

In recent years, the court developed the Leandro Plan, a comprehensive strategy to ensure the state meets students' constitutional rights to education, from early childhood education to college and career transitions. Earlier this year, the state court reheard the case, which could determine the state's obligations but there has been no ruling yet.

North Carolina ranks 49th in the U.S. for school funding, with 92% of students in underfunded districts. Ellinwood noted the Leandro Plan aims to bridge these gaps.

"To deal with the shortages that we're seeing in teachers across the state and the number of teachers who are leaving the profession," Ellinwood explained. "And get back the nationally recommended ratios for nurses, counselors and therapists. It's something that a lot of families are seeing are not in place in their school for their health and mental health needs."

Ellinwood predicted the plan would also help address the child care crisis in the state. He explained rising costs and the end of federal pandemic funds have worsened challenges for child care centers and schools, leading to closures.

"I think the state is doing some kind of Band-Aid to try to keep the system going but we really need a significant investment there and that is laid out in the Leandro Plan," Ellinwood emphasized. "In a really, again, comprehensive way, we need funding through different wages for the quality measures, to ensure that those are met and continue to be high quality."

State lawmakers have approved a $68 million emergency fund for child care. Despite it, the state Department of Health and Human Services warned of more closures this fall without more support.


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Some Illinois educators made their way to Texas this week for an American Federation of Teachers convention. AFT is one of the nation's largest labor unions for educators and school personnel, with nearly two-million members - including more than 100,000 in Illinois.

The organization promotes democracy, economic opportunity and quality public education. Earlier this week, AFT President Randi Weingarten spoke to attendees in Houston on the impact of public schools in Illinois and nationwide.

"Public schools are essential to our children's future and to our democracy. Every public school should be a place where families want to send their children, educators want to work, and all students thrive," said Weingarten.

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to give today's keynote speech at the convention.

Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery echoes the union's reaction to President Joe Biden's announcement not to seek re-election. He expressed his gratitude for what he called Biden's "unwavering dedication" to the American people, including investments in public education.

The IFT also supports some issues unrelated to education. These include defending reproductive health and improving healthcare access, and fostering an economy that uplifts the middle class. Another battle many educators face is evolving technology aimed at youth. Weingarten called on social media giants to operate more responsibly.

"We're fighting back against the addictive and predatory practices of social media companies, demanding that they protect - not prey on - children, and we're focusing on artificial intelligence. AI can be a powerful tool, but there must be strong guardrails," she said.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, there are 867 districts and nearly 3,900 public schools in the state, with an 88% graduation rate. The average annual teacher salary is $75,000.