Rural Schools Not Getting Fair Share

Rural Schools Not Getting Fair Share

Rural Schools Not Getting Fair Share. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. When you crunch the numbers, small or rural school districts aren't getting an equitable portion of federal funding from the elementary and secondary education act, formerly called no child left behind. Some of that funding is based on the number of students in need. WOLFF: Unfortunately that formula is flawed. So rural school districts are getting cheated on funding while some of the more wealthy, suburban districts are getting more than their fair share. American Farm Bureau Policy Specialist Pat Wolff says congress is reevaluating the legislation because it is up for reauthorization. WOLFF: There is almost universal agreement that the act needs to be rewritten. There is considerable controversy over how it should be rewritten and it's something that's going to take congress probably more than this year to figure out. While congress studies and waits, the old act continues. So in this case lack of action hurts rural school districts. There are two big problems. First funding for students in need is based on the average amount each state spends per pupil in its public schools. So high poverty rural schools in states that don't spend much on education are at a big disadvantage. Also, the larger the number of students in poverty the more each student counts, giving large schools a financial advantage over small schools. WOLFF: Farmers care about rural communities. It's where they go to church, where they go to the doctor and where their kids go to school. Rural kids, farm kids should have access to a good education just like kids in every other part of the country and if they're being shortchanged because of a formula in a federal piece of legislation, well, congress needs to change that formula so that federal money for schools is distributed fairly. Wolff describes what congress can do to fix the elementary and secondary education act. WOLFF: Farm Bureau and other advocates for rural schools believe that one of the things that they can do to improve federal support of school districts is to rewrite title one so that the money truly goes to where it's needed, to rural school districts. Congress should treat everyone fairly and they should change the education act so that rural schools get their fair share of funding and so that children who grow up in rural areas get a good education. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
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