Wise Investment?

“We just want to keep our school so that our town can stay.”
Stephanie Harmon, Teacher in Sparkman, Arkansas

Sparkman, Arkansas (population 501) is hanging on by its fingernails. It’s lost most of its jobs, half of its population, and a bit of its spirit. But when it comes to losing its school, the town isn’t giving up without a fight.

Sparkman High School is the pride of the town. It boasts the highest academic rating of any school in the area, and it’s home to teams in basketball, baseball, and softball. Up until 2004 the school had a darn good football team, often competing in state playoffs though fielding only 16 players. But the numbers have been dropping at the school, too, and in recent years Sparkman hasn’t been able to muster up a roster of even 16 kids to play football.

When neighboring Arkadelphia (population 11,175) announced plans last fall to help its high school graduates pay for college, it lit a fire in Sparkman. Townspeople there didn’t have a “gee, what a neat idea” reaction. Instead, they launched a “you’re not luring our kids away” defense and passed the hat to raise funds for their own college fund. So far, they’ve raised $53,000—not bad for a community whose high school recently graduated 13 kids, only 8 of whom want to go to college.

But sending kids to college could turn out to be a bigger problem. Statistics show that once they leave, college-bound students from small towns rarely return home. Still, the one thing Sparkman hasn’t run out of is hope, and folks there are pinning their hopes on the kids.

Read the article ® Arkansas town invests in children to save itself