first year and nothing the following year. It picked up funding again in 2007 by designating $100,000 for the program, and that continued for the next few years.

In 2010, New Mexico voters put a new governor in office and a new secretary of education was appointed. The rural education office was eliminated, and the legislature stopped funding for the program for the 2010-11 school year.

"It just was one of those political things, and that's unfortunate," Holloway said. "There were some good things going on and some great possibilities."

Some of the school-based programs have continued while others haven't. An outside evaluation of the initiative showed positive results, such as improved school attendance, fewer discipline problems and renewed interest in academic pursuits, according to the Kappan article. But the programsweren't in existence long enough to be linked directly to test score increases.

"I can't prove it, but logic tells me if we'd been able to continue this, test scores would've gone up," Holloway said. "There was a positive atmosphere in these schools. If that's there and students want to be there, they're going to learn."

Holloway retired before the 2010 election and the program's elimination, and now he's consulting with rural communities nationwide in the hope of replicating the New Mexico project. And he hasn't given up hope that the project could receive funding again in New Mexico.

"We're still sort of waiting in wings," he said. "We haven't had a funeral yet."

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