Funding Mechanisms and Their Effects on Rural Areas

This study reports the results of a pilot study designed to test whether students living in rural school districts receive their "fair share" of federal education funds. It examines for six states (Vermont, North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, and California), the distribution of Fiscal Year 1977 funds between rural and nonrural school districts for two state-administered federal programs. The study compares funding patterns using four alternative definitions of ruralness: the metropolitan/nonmetropolitan distinction traditionally employed in studies of this subject and three finer grained definitions. The results indicate that, in the sample states, Title IVB funding formulas are operating to provide rural districts with at least a proportional share of program funds and in most cases somewhat more. In the competitive grant system of Title IVC, analysis using the finer grained definitions of ruralness reveals that rural districts in several sample states receive per capita funds that are below and, in some cases, considerably below those received by nonrural districts.