Rural Texas

A teenage girl and a woman are wearing matching white hats and faded red t-shirts that promote the summer nutrition program at Smithville ISD. They are standing behind cardboard boxes that have oranges, green apples, red apples and pears in them. They are picking up the fruit and putting it into plastic bags. There is also a plastic container full of grapefruit.

Education

A rural school district used to serve 25 meals a day in the summer. Now, they've quadrupled that.

Becky Fogel

A recent change in federal rules gives rural districts more options for providing summer meals. The change has allowed Smithville ISD to increase the number of kids getting healthy meals while school is out.

Employees service a computer on Sept. 15 at Helios, a 125,000-square-foot Argo Blockchain facility in Dickens County.

Business

Cryptocurrency miners line up to come to Texas, and rural counties are welcoming them

Eager to bring new jobs to their towns and boost their tax base, rural Texas counties are courting companies that produce cryptocurrencies.

Residents of the coastal town of Rockport, Texas would benefit from improved broadband Internet access.

Texas Standard

Passage Of Senate Bill Brings Texas Closer To Better Rural Broadband

Shelly Brisbin

"It establishes a baseline state-level policy plan, and infrastructure, that ... will allow us to solve the problem."

UT freshman Andrew Dareing moves his belongings out of the Jester-West dorm after campus shut down to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Education

As UT Students Log On To Finish Classes From Home, Some In Rural Texas Struggle To Stay Connected

Audrey McGlinchy

Andrew Dareing is from Mertzon, Texas – a town with 743 people, where the only stoplight is a four-way blinking yellow light.“There’s not enough through…

Texas

UIL Realignment Spells Big Changes For Small Schools

From Texas Standard:Every two years, the University Interscholastic League – better known as the UIL – realigns the state’s public schools for…