Rural Schools' Environment
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