In recent years rural advocates have claimed that rural students do not get their "fair share" of the federal education dollar and that federal programs are sometimes poorly tailored to rural conditions. These claims of an anti-rural bias have led to a study of fiscal year 1977 federal funding patterns in the six sample states of…

Two investigations were conducted to determine whether rural school districts receive a fair share of federal education funds: a quantitative analysis of the distribution of federal funds between rural and nonrural school districts and a qualitative exploration of the special needs and disadvantages of rural school systems. The quantitative study…