Betsy Boggs is a master’s student in the Education, Culture, and Society program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is originally from rural South Carolina and has spent many years working and studying the intersections of race, housing, and education in rural Alabama. She hopes to continue working alongside rural communities--specifically in the rural South--as an advocate for equitable educational opportunities for students and families in those communities.
There is an overabundance of research and scholarly attention being dedicated to the educational issues plaguing our urban communities in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta, etc. But what about the rural communities along the Interstate 95 corridor in South Carolina and in the Black Belt region of Alabama whose students are also suffering? If we care about all children receiving equitable educational opportunities through the public school system in the U.S., we have to spend more time talking about rural education and the unique challenges faced by students, families, and communities in these regions.