No simple equation will fix rural school funding

A recent report conducted by the Rural School and Community Trust ranked Idaho dead last in the nation for per-pupil spending in rural schools in 2015-16. The report, titled “Why Rural Matters 2015-16: Understanding the Changing Landscape,” compared rural spending in all 50 states.

The lower the ranking, the more urgent the issues facing a state’s rural schools are.

Idaho finished 17th overall while Mississippi ranked first.

However, researchers found that “no state spends less on instruction per pupil” than Idaho.

Kellogg School District superintendent Woody Woodford read the report and explained some of the specific drawbacks Idaho faces when it comes to educational spending.

“The State of Idaho is working hard to increase educational funding and they have made progress in the last three years,” Woodford said. “I agree with the study and that more funding is needed. One of the issues with Idaho educational funding is it usually come earmarked for specific programs and generally has strings attached.”

Those particular strings are things like technology, health insurance, professional development, gifted and talented education, and other specialized programs.

Woodford further breaks the issue down on a per student level and the dollar amount needed as opposed to what is actually received is quite alarming.

“The cost of educating students in surrounding states, (Oregon, Washington and Montana), approximately $9,500 per student,” Woodford said. “The Kellogg School District receives approximately $6,900 per student.”

A misconception that has been circulating concerning this fact is that higher inflation and taxes in these states makes the difference in the dollar amount needed per student, which is actually not the case.

“It costs no less to educate students in Idaho as it does in our neighboring states,” Woodford said. “But this lack of funding requires our district to run maintenance and operational levies every two years to make up the difference.” This lack of funding can cripple the way rural schools expand to better suit the needs of their students.

The report acknowledges how this problem is putting pressure on state representatives to improve how schools are funded.

“Many children and their families in rural America need better and more equitable educational opportunities,” the report read. “The pressure is rising for policymakers to address rural education issues at the state and federal levels.”

The local school districts including KSD are funded through a multitude of avenues, and as Woodford mentioned, one of them is through levies which have drawbacks of their own on the local community.

“Approximately 80 percent of Shoshone County is owned by the State and Federal Government with only 20 percent of the property owned by local taxpayers,” Woodford stated. “The State and Federal Government do not pay taxes, so in short, 20 percent of the property holders in Shoshone County pay 100 percent of the taxes.”

In a time where funds from Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act (SRS) continue to dry up (local schools have yet to receive any SRS funds for the 2016-17 school year) the options for funding are beginning to look bleak unless a resolution is found quickly.

As the SRS funds run out, aging school facilities like the ones in Shoshone County (minus the refurbished Sunnyside/Kellogg Middle School building and Wallace High School) will fall into serious trouble as districts will not have funds to make sure that every crack, leak, and infrastructure failure gets repaired.

Here are a few other key take-aways from Rural School and Community Trust’s report:

- Only five states have lower instructional salaries than Idaho.

- Idaho’s educational outcomes are at or below national medians, with fourth grade an area of highest concern.

Educational outcomes are a series of criteria that educators use for various, specific situations.

- Minority students comprise more than a fifth of Idaho’s rural students in Idaho population.

- Only nine states educate a higher percentage of rural English language learners (ELL) students.

English-language learners, or ELLs, are students who are unable to communicate fluently or learn effectively in English, who often come from non-English-speaking homes and backgrounds, and who typically require specialized or modified instruction in both the English language and in their academic courses.

- Idaho’s rural student mobility rate is 10th highest in the nation.

Student mobility is the frequency of students to change from school to school. This more prevalent in rural schools and studies have shown that students with high mobility rates are less likely to graduate.