On a Teacher's Salary



I recently spent several days in western North Dakota making radio and multimedia stories for  Black Gold Boom, a series of radio stories documenting people and places impacted by the oil boom (fracking). The stories air on Prairie Public Radio, North Dakota's public radio network (the last story I did also aired on Marketplace!). This next story (listen below) is about teachers and airs in North Dakota this week.

Finding a place to live in oil country is almost a joke. Housing is scarce. Prices are through the roof. Oilfield workers might be able to afford the $2000/month commonly required to rent apartment in rural North Dakota, but for schoolteachers, finding an adequate home without going broke is a challenge. This story follows three schoolteachers in Stanley, North Dakota whose workplace gone above and beyond to find them a place to live.

Comments

  1. This is so weird because it just sounds like Stanley, ND is experiencing the very same thing that Thuwal, Saudi Arabia has experienced in the past three years. People go where the oil money is but there is often a lack of infrastructure to support us.

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  2. That's interesting. Stanley is seeing rapid growth - new hotels and businesses popping up - but at it's heart, it's still a small town. There is money for infrastructure there (like the teacher houses), but it's tough to know exactly how to go about allocating resources when something as basic as population is not even established.

    It's as if the town were having an identity crisis.

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  3. Hey Laura, I couldn't see where to listen to the story

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  4. Hey Ashley - at the bottom of the post, there's a gray rectangle with a picture on the left side. In that rectangle, you'll see a little white arrow in a red circle. Click that! :)

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  5. Hey Laura. For some reason I can see the little grey box but nothing is in it!Arggh. It's probably my computer.

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  6. Hey Ashley, I'll just email the story to you!

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