State Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, congratulated Southland Schools for efforts in securing federal grant money for 20 area schools to help purchase equipment that will facilitate distance-learning opportunities for students and teachers.

Southland Schools and the Southeast Service Cooperative partnered to submit the Southeast Minnesota Generation Now Learning Project grant proposals to the US Department of Agriculture Rural Utility Service distance learning and telemedicine grant program.

Both proposals were accepted and will distribute $373,123 among 20 Southeast Minnesota schools to acquire videoconferencing equipment and teacher training to offer students more course options and teachers more options in professional development. The proposal was one of 191 eligible applications that competed nationally in 2009.

“Our area schools are known for using innovative ideas to provide quality education to our students, and this grant will help advance what’s already taking place in our schools,” Sparks said.

This grant will help bridge the “digital divide” with videoconferencing technology that will bring more course options as well as teacher professional development to all of the schools, he said.

A full list of schools participating in the Southeast Minnesota Generation Now Learning Project are: Southland, Blooming Prairie, Fillmore Central, Byron, Glenville-Emmons, Grand Meadow, Hayfield, Kingsland, LeRoy-Ostrander, Lyle, Caledonia, Lanesboro, Wabasha-Kellogg, Cannon Falls, Houston, Pine Island, Lewiston-Altura, Rushford Peterson and Spring Grove.