Facts and Figures About States With Funding Parity in Rural School Districts


Last Updated: February 24, 2011
 

This article appeared in the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters.

Question: In which ten states do funding levels vary the least between rural districts? In other words, in which states are rural schools most likely to have about the same amount of funding as other rural schools?

Answer: Delaware, Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Maryland.

It is important to note that many of these states have some of the most poorly funded rural schools in the nation. The fact that there’s not a lot of variation among districts is often because nearly all rural schools lack adequate resources.

For more information about “equity,” which provides fairly similar levels of fiscal support targeted to relative levels of student need, and “adequacy,” which provides sufficient funding to offer a high-quality education, read “Equity and Adequacy in School Funding” in the January edition of RPM.

Read more from the February 2011 Rural Policy Matters.