Posted: 08.01.2011

Rural Wisconsin schools face the most difficult challenges they have encountered in half a century, yet their potential power to meet those challenges has never been less. That’s the great irony of rural education, according to “Forgotten? Challenges Facing Rural Schools,” a new report from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX).

The challenges facing rural schools in Wisconsin begin with a sparse and declining rural population. In 2010, rural districts averaged 7.9 students per square mile, compared to 47.0 for others in the state. Sparse student populations result in long bus rides with net costs averaging $593 per student, or nearly 50% higher than elsewhere ($405). The report argues that these high transportation costs are forgone dollars that otherwise could be used for instruction.

Wisconsin’s rural schools also face significant enrollment declines. Over the decade ending last year, rural student populations fell more than 14,500, or 7.5%. Elsewhere in the state, student populations were up 3.3%. WISTAX researchers point out that, with state-mandated revenue limits tied to student counts, falling enrollment has adverse budget consequences. Thus, seven rural districts had lower revenues in 2010 than in 2000, and another 20 had revenues rise less than 1% per year.

With relatively few students and higher per student costs, rural districts often find it difficult to maintain efficient class sizes, especially in middle and high schools. Per student instructional costs averaged 7.0% higher in rural schools than in their urban/suburban counterparts. Staffing was the primary reason: Student/teacher ratios averaged 13.1-to-1 in rural districts, compared to 14.6-to-1 elsewhere. For a 500-student district, that meant it employed four more teachers than it would have if it staffed at the nonrural average, at an extra cost of about $300,000 per year. As one school official noted, a small rural district may need a high school math teacher at only half-time, but “it is hard to keep a teacher at less than full-time, so she is hired full-time.”

WISTAX also documents the disadvantage rural districts faced in offering advanced courses in 2010. The average rural district offered only three Advanced Placement (AP) classes, compared to nine elsewhere. In fact, 20% of rural districts offered no AP classes.Wisconsin’s rural districts also lag in students taking the ACT college entrance test. On average, rural districts had 54% participation, or five percentage points less than elsewhere (59%).

In addition to educational challenges, rural district operations are often complicated by less economic opportunity and more poverty. Rural Wisconsin has 57 jobs per 100 residents compared to 62 in the rest of the state. Moreover, wages average 26% less than in urban/suburban areas. Greater participation in free-and-reduced lunch programs in rural (39%) vs. other (31%) areas reflect broad rural poverty.

High-speed Internet access can level both economic and educational opportunity. But a federal report shows 20% to 30% of Wisconsin’s rural population lacks this access. The WISTAX study notes the dearth of high-speed Internet further exacerbates the problems of rural schools.

Economic and educational adversity aside, perhaps the largest problem rural school districts face is their lack of political voice. Of 33 state senate districts, only six (18%) are primarily rural. In the assembly, only 19 of 99 (19%) districts are primarily rural. The irony, WISTAX president Todd A. Berry observes, is that at the same time that rural schools face mounting educational and financial problems, their political voice is diminishing.

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