This post comes from CSIndy and explores the migration of students from traditional classrooms to online classes in rural areas. The man in the Sodbuster Bar walks with a slight limp, the result of old injury.
"I was operating a seismograph rig when it went off a hillside outside Meeteetse, Wyo.," he says. "It fell 382 feet with me inside. I wasn't supposed to make it, but I did. I eventually got a settlement. Made a lot of lawyers rich in the process, though."
The bar is in Springfield, the seat of Baca County. Tucked away in the southeast corner of Colorado, the county is much more closely aligned, both in politics and soul, with Oklahoma or the Texas panhandle than with Colorado Springs. It's flat, windy "tomorrow country," as in, "OK, things are tough, but they'll get better tomorrow."
It's the kind of place where used farm equipment is a prized lawn ornament.
In 2004, Baca County ranked as one of the 50 poorest counties in the nation, both in adjusted gross income and in wages. It has lost 10 percent of its residents in the past decade, and its population is about to drop below 4,000.
But, like the man in the bar, the county is a survivor.
In fact, one of its school districts is doing more than surviving. Vilas RE-5 has the highest growth rate of any of Colorado's 178 school districts. Its enrollment is up 405 percent since 2002. It had 3,800 students during the 2006-2007 school year with a projected enrollment of 4,056 for 2007-08 (the final count won't be official until Oct. 1). To read the rest of this interesting article click here.
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