Left Behind: Why Budget Cuts Hit Rural Students the Hardest

Approximately 10 million school-age children in the US attend school in rural districts, which accounts for one out of every five public school students. I was one of them. As a byproduct of one of these districts, I can attest that there were definitely opportunities I missed because of attending a small-town, rural school. But I can't blame the school for that. Having taught at the same school I attended from kindergarten through graduation, I understand the limitations and pressures faced by rural schools. Now, more than ever, when massive education cuts threaten to hit rural school districts the hardest.

There is never enough funding, ever. Rural districts plead for referendums to raise property taxes (the primary way schools are funded) or fight to entice businesses into their communities. When I was in high school, Walmart built a new store on the edge of Springfield, and because of its location, it technically fell under the adjacent rural school district. Now, I'm no fan of Walmart, their business practices, or how I remember them treating employees when my father worked there for a few years, but that one large stream of tax revenue paid for an auditorium at that high school. One I envied as a rival school student who performed her musicals in an echoey gym built in 1938 and later taught out of, as a "homeless" teacher, when I worked for that same school that still didn't have enough classrooms for all its teachers.

I give this example because it is critical to understand that the majority of school funding is generated locally from property taxes. And, with the exception of the few districts lucky enough to snag a box store or a car dealership on the edge of the closest big town, most rural districts will never generate enough tax revenue to truly meet the needs of their students, forcing them to rely more heavily on state and federal funding. That is just the painful reality of rural districts. 

But that doesn't mean we should condemn, abandon, or close these schools. The concept of "school choice" and voucher programs gets thrown around a lot these days to encourage parents to seek "better" opportunities elsewhere, often in private religious or profit-driven charter schools owned by large corporations. But where do you go when you're 15, 30, 50 miles away from the next city? When all the districts next to you are in the same financial position? When there are no other choices available in your community because the one school is housing Pre-K through 12th grade under one roof?

Compared to city-dwelling families, 92% of which have access to other options (private or charter schools), only 34% of rural families live within five miles of a private school. Private schools do not provide transportation for students. And, despite private schools receiving government-paid vouchers or charter schools receiving public funding to replace "failed" public schools, both schools are allowed to ignore IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) and turn away students, even with mild learning disabilities, who would successfully function with only a few, easy classwork accommodations. That doesn't sound like "choice" to me.

The tragic result is that these obstacles leave many students stranded in even more aggressively defunded rural schools. Money is diverted to private and charter schools, leaving small, rural schools to fend for themselves. Rural districts often serve smaller populations but still incur the same operating costs – staff, transportation, breakfast and lunch programs, maintenance, and technology, among others– as larger districts. When students leave the district, their funding, granted per student, follows them to the next school or is converted into vouchers. The loss of funding for only a handful of students can result in significant deficits for a district, potentially even leading to closure. Many rural districts constantly face the threat of consolidation, which ultimately results in the loss of staff, resources, facilities, and long-standing community culture when districts are forced to merge.

In the face of looming educational cuts, it's important to recognize that the needs of rural students differ from those of students living in urban or suburban areas. Slashing public school spending, dismantling departments and agencies that serve high-needs students not served by the states, and encouraging parents to leave struggling districts for greener, more well-funded pastures hurts kids. It restricts the types of classes they can take and the credits they can earn, impacting their college and career readiness. It reduces athletics programs, which can sometimes be the only avenue rural students have to attend college through scholarships. It eliminates vital arts and vocational programs that build skills, confidence, passion, and community. It prevents schools from addressing crumbling infrastructure, removing asbestos, or updating older facilities to meet ADA compliance standards. These examples are just what I recall from personal experience, having been both a student and a teacher in my struggling, rural hometown district.

For the last three years, I worked for an online enrichment program out of the Chicago suburbs that catered to affluent students. Kids who played classical instruments, won robotics competitions, completed internships for major companies as high school sophomores, and anticipated acceptance to Ivy League schools. They were talented, academically gifted, elite college-bound kids destined to do incredible things, but they weren't the kind of students who really needed my help. The kids I know, for example, forced to take online classes hosted by another rural school to complete their base-level high school graduation requirements because there weren't enough teachers on staff to provide the class. 

Rural kids deserve attention, help, and resources. Inevitably, even high-achieving students from these schools underperform compared to their non-rural peers because they are a product of a flawed system, which ensures their rural school can't adequately meet the needs of every student or offer what other districts can. Now, more than ever, I want to serve these overlooked students. When I was a teenager, all I wanted to do was to get out, leave my small town forever, and never look back. Many kids echo this sentiment because we grow up in communities that have been ravaged and forgotten, leaving little to no opportunity for us at home. And the truth is this starts in school. My dream for Scholarly is to serve every student who seeks my help and be a resource for kids who grew up just like me.