America like the rest of the world is becoming more urban. Villages become towns, towns become cities. In general, it is a good tendency. People get more amenities, workplaces. Urbanization has also a profound effect on education. Education quality is higher, students get more practice, use the Internet and multimedia in their learning process.
But is an education in cities and villages the same? Do students have the same opportunities in cities and villages? Amount of people in a rural area who have a bachelor’s degree is 19% in front of 33% of people who live in cities. The education system is changing to the better side. Now we can say that education in cities is top-notch but rural education should be improved. There is a totally different situation with education in a rural area in every state. But all states have some problems in common that need to be solved.
#1 Lack of Money
Schools in cities get more money from the government than rural schools. It is really hard for rural schools to keep the same level of education as urban schools having less money. It is a reason why the level of education can be lower in rural schools.
#2 Problems with Teachers
It is extremely hard to attract a proficient teacher into a rural area. Because there are fewer opportunities for career grown in rural areas. It is also harder to teach children in rural areas because teachers in villages don’t have the same amount of equipment as teachers in cities.
#3 Transporting
Usually, school buses are used to transport children to school and home but not every school has enough buses. It is a problem for parents who can’t transport their children to school on their own.
#4 Arranging After-School Life
Urban schools have gyms, swimming pools, art workshops for photography clubs. The question with after-school life for rural schools is more complicated. The main reason is that fewer children study in village schools. But it often rural schools have own football teams or music bands as well.
#5 It Is Way Harder to Get a Grant
There are far fewer grant programs for rural schools. Grants are an additional opportunity for schools to get funding.
#6 Rural Schools Are Less Involved Is Social Programs
Urban schools are more involved in social and charitable projects that also teach students to live in a community.
Rural education has own advantages. For example, children study the history of their native land and teachers have more possibilities to pay attention to every child. Every year the education system in the USA gives more and more money to develop village schools. New and new projects are being introduced to improve rural education. Using the Internet in teaching children provides equal opportunities for children and in villages and cities.
Today, the Internet offers not only a lot of good materials for studying foreign languages or programming, but also for studying history, biology or even medicine. One of the most important tasks for the authorities should be the provision of the Internet of all rural schools. By the way, the internet can substitute the whole library that is really convenient.
One more task is to ensure high wages for rural teachers, which will provide a good level of teaching. Finishing school in a village, the child should understand why it is worth continuing to study, what opportunities open up the good education. Then the number of people having a diploma in the countryside will be significantly higher.
After graduating from a rural school, children, as a rule, enter colleges or universities located in cities. There they have equal opportunities with children who studied in urban schools.