The smaller the school district, the more it costs per-pupil to provide transportation, school buildings, or human capitol. It is a lot less cost effective to run a school bus for ten students than it is to run a bus that picks of 50 kids. As a result, small districts spend a greater portion of the budget on transportation than do their urban counterparts. However, in the larger school the salary for the specialist is absorbed by 1000 students instead of 50. Small school districts are closely connected to parents and communities, but because of this, collecting poverty data can be a problem.
Parents are reluctant to give out personally information, such as income.
Households that rely on farming as income are at a distinct disadvantage because of federal poverty guidelines as well. Enrollment by grade level in small schools is frequently low, all students are known and feel part of a community. Students in small districts are more engaged in extra curricular activities, which correlates well with achievement and engagement at school. Rural school students graduate at a much higher rate than most other high school students, thus the cost per graduate is lower than in larger schools. The federal government recently realized this cost analyses and funded a national small schools program for large urban schools in last year's appropriations budget.