Rural Students

Disproportionately, many urban and minority students suffer from the existence of the funding gap in the educational system of the United States. Often times then, the focus falls on this community and group of students while others are ignored. More specifically, rural students are among the population of students that are often forgotten but also tend to be the ones who need to see an equalization of the funding gap the most.

General Information

There is a high rate of poverty in rural communities (Williams).
Rural students are often “poorer than urban and suburban counterparts" (Williams).

- The poverty rate is 13.4% in rural areas compared to 10.8% in metropolitan areas (Williams).

- Child poverty rates are “two to three times higher than the national average” (Williams).

· Higher poverty rates, lower property values and less economic development are the major tenants of why the funding gap is apparent in the rural school setting.

Problems

There exist many accumulated effects of the funding gap.

- There tend to be less curricular and co-curricular offerings in rural schools.

- There tend to be less resources, especially community resources like those in metropolitan areas can access.

- Examples: Museums, Speakers

- While even quite poor metropolitan schools can find reduced ticket prices or free entries altogether to attend museums and special events for field trips, rural schools do not have the option at all.

· There is a tendency of having less qualified teachers.

- There is a shortage of qualified teachers already.

- There is a higher turn-over rate in rural areas, as teachers become increasingly frustrated with low pay and less resources from the area.

Unique Population

Rural students’ test scores are relatively high.