practice

The history of the Mississippi Delta centers around one thing: farming. During the transition from segregated to integrated schools, small towns in the Delta were home to illustrious plantations and booming manufacturing plants. The economy was not spectacular, but it was habitable. Now, most of the manufacturing plants have closed their doors and farm jobs are becoming more and more sparse (Elliott). NPR’s Debbie Elliott notes that “the decline of manual labor and exodus of manufacturing jobs have made difficult conditions worse in one of the nation’s poorest regions.” Six Deltan counties have seen a population decline greater than 20% since 1970. The declining economy is another contributing factor to the decline of Deltan schools. In a Washington Post article about schools in the Delta, writer Peter Whoriskey explains how rural schools that are primarily comprised of at-risk youth and offer substantially lower salaries than nearby schools have a difficult time finding and preserving qualified teachers. One section of Whoriskey’s article includes a story of an untrained teacher hired through an “emergency license” who was “found hiding” when his third grade students tossed papers in his direction.