Rural schools in New York State face a perpetual need for funding, but few resources to apply for grants. Since larger suburban and urban schools have more resources to secure competitive funds, rural schools fall further behind.
Now, a new course at Cornell, in partnership with the Rural Schools Association of New York State, will connect rural school districts with undergraduate and graduate students to level the playing field.
The engaged learning course “Show Me the Money: Rural Communities, Rural School Funding in New York, and How to Write a Grant Proposal” aims to help schools identify critical funding needs and then seek grant funds to support programming in under-resourced schools.
Launching in fall 2021, the course – now accepting interested students – will bring together 15 undergraduates and five graduate students into five teams. Those Cornell teams will be matched with school-district-based teams of three. Together, they will identify local district priorities and initiatives, and then work to write proposals to get those projects funded.