“Providing Rural Students with a High Quality Education: The Rural Perspective on the Concept of Educational Adequacy” is available from the Rural School and Community Trust. (Registration, which is free, is required to access the report.)
How should adequate school financing be defined for rural schools? A report from the Arlington, Va.-based Rural School and Community Trust poses that question, and argues that many rural schools deserve special attention under state school-finance systems.
The report is based on interviews with rural education policy advocates from five states: Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia. It urges additional financial support through a “rural funding index” for schools because many of them face special circumstances, such as high levels of poverty and undereducated families.