Financing Rural and Small Schools: Issues of Adequacy and Equity

This monograph investigates issues related to the financial support of rural schools. The first section describes various state formulas and the methods used to distribute funds to rural schools. It considers questions about the adequacy of funding adjustments based on sparsity and the relationship of such adjustments to equal educational opportunity. It also synthesizes the current research on the status of school facilities. This section of the discussion details the relationships among wealth, ability to pay, and the maintenance and capital expenditure problems that rural, small (and usually poor) school districts face. The second section describes some of the legal challenges relevant to rural and small schools currently before the courts. At the heart of these challenges is the inability of existing finance formulas to address adequately the needs of rural education. These challenges are compared to similar challenges brought by urban schools. The third section discusses state and local support mechanisms and details efforts by some states to make the tax base more responsive to rural education needs. It considers issues involved in reclassification and reassessment of property, including relevant economic concerns of primarily agriculture-based economies. Conclusions and recommendations include discussions about consolidation and school reform as related to equal educational opportunity. (Author/TES)