More than one-third of Indiana’s public schools are located in rural areas, and they serve over 300,000 students. Socioeconomic indicators are consistently middle to low, and the current rural student population has little cultural diversity, although that is changing rapidly. The percentage of students qualifying for special education services is among the nation’s highest. Rural Illinois has large schools and districts and a low ratio of instructional spending to transportation spending, giving it a ranking of 20th in the nation in need of rural education attention and improvement.