Rural schools are innovators.

We began our advocacy journey in 2018 as we gathered together as rural public school parents and educators to fight SB441 - legislation designed to remove local control from the school calendar process and essentially eliminate the choices of rural communities to have a 4day school calendar option. Our community grew to nearly 4,000 members by fall of 2020. At this point in time, we decided to expand our reach beyond supporters of the 4day school week to include ALL rural school district parents, community members, educators and school administrators. Upon rebranding to the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, our membership has grown to over 10,000 members.

The State of Oklahoma has historically placed the health and vitality of our public school classrooms and teachers in a low priority position. We are nowhere near where we should be regionally or nationally in educational outcomes, our educators and support staff are some of the lowest paid in the nation, and our children are not being given a competitive shot at a quality public education. It is our mission to develop public education into a Top 3 voting issue for rural Oklahoma voters. We believe this can become a reality with a concerted effort to better inform rural voters how elected officials are approaching their votes when it comes to issues important to public schools, particularly in rural areas. Please join us in advocating for better classrooms for all of Oklahoma’s children.