Educators lament what they overwhelmingly view as inadequate funding for schools, and predict that student performance eventually will suffer if fiscal support continues to decline. But even the most fervent advocates of greater spending acknowledge that this has not happened yet. If there is a serious education problem in Montana, it is the low achievement of the state's American Indian students. But this rate is inflated by the large percentage of American Indian children who are poor, and by Montana's per capita income, which is the nation's 7th lowest. One reason for this is that Montana is overwhelmingly an agricultural state.
Cattle is big business, and the other significant industries are mining, timber, and tourism.
The cost of living is relatively low. Montana has about 471 districts, of which about 118 have fewer than 40 students and about 90 operate one-room schools. They can't all live on the farm. They can't all live in Montana, for that matter. But that's just not an issue Montanans worry about.