There are many aspects about rural schools that make them less fortunate than

other types of schools. The actual environment of rural schools sometimes makes it
hard for their students to succeed. Poverty is the "600 pound gorilla" that is sitting on
rural schools (Berliner, 2004). Rural schools are dependent on national and urban
economics, and if the economy is not prospering, this also how rural schools fail.
Because these schools are geographically and culturally isolated due to their
locations, they usually lack the conditions that non-rural schools have. In addition,
the location of these rural schools forces them to use more effort in order to network
with people and to get the materials needed for teachers and students. Recently,
farms in rural areas have been diminishing, and rural policy no longer has to be
equated with farm policy. Furthermore, rural areas have previously depended on
their schools as a focus of life, but this has changed and the future has become
different. The school is now expected to prepare students for a different society than
traditional rural environments, which creates an imbalance in ideals and traditions
(Stern, 1994). We must view rural schools and communities as integrated social
structures.

Poverty is another problem that exists in rural schools, although it varies by region.
We are in need of a federal policy to recognize the diversity of rural populations and
give provisions for resources unavailable because of a lack of funding. There are
three levels of funding provided by the government (local, state, and federal) that
add to educational spending. If rural schools are to give the same services to their
students as larger schools, the cost of program per person would be higher, but
these schools do not receive extra money (DeYoung, 1991).

Rural schools face poor conditions that their students are exposed to on a daily
basis. For example, these schools lack the facilities, course materials, and programs
that wealthier districts have. The problem with resources in rural schools is not
availability of information, but the diversity of their settings. A critical factor as to why
rural schools have such problems is the funding that they receive. Due to the small
size of these schools, they tend to get less money from the government, but even
when they get the same funding as non-rural districts, this is not enough due to the
unique problems that rural schools are faced with. Because of the lack of funding,
the condition of the schools is terrible. Usually rural schools have dilapidated
buildings, which makes the learning environment unsafe and not motivating for the
students. Since schools do not have sufficient funding, they are not able to tailor
programs to the student's needs, such as Advanced Placement and Honors classes
as well as remedial and special education classes, which creates problems for these
students. Furthermore, the materials that rural schools are provided with are out of
date, and technological improvements such as computers and internet access are
not available in most rural areas (Gibbs, 2000). Since the conditions of rural schools
are not motivating to students they may experience learned helplessness, and feel
that no matter what they do they cannot succeed.

Recently there has been a loss of population in rural areas, which in turn leads to a
loss of jobs (Gwaltney, 2001-2002). Economic marginality is a huge factor in rural
schools it is hard to get occupations or make enterprises in rural areas due to their
isolated location. In addition, rural areas are made up of an aging population. This
increases the costs for education in rural areas because they are not receiving many
new residents. The school drop out rate is two times more for poor children than rich
children, mostly because they lack the motivation to finish school (Epstein, 1995).
Moreover, rural school students have been shown to have a lower self esteem score,
which can also add to reasons why they may drop out of school (Malhoit, 2005).

Many rural schools lack the funding needed to improve the quality of their school
environment and give the students the resources they need to succeed. It is obvious
that without extra government funding many rural schools will continue to struggle
with meeting their students' needs. I think that there must be some sort of reform in
order to give failing rural schools monetary assistance, but not something like the No
Child Left Behind Act that will come in and restructure the school not knowing which
strategies work and which do not work in rural areas.