A survey of high school principals in 74 rural Indiana counties found concern about declining populations and a potential shortage of future community leaders
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Rural educators concerned about population loss
- Thread starter Jason Svoboda
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It didn't need to be studied b/c of lack of interest? The problem is too apparent? Or you just don't believe it was important to study it?
bent20
The Odum Level
I think it's an important issue. The US is becoming a nation of urban sprawl with decaying inner cities and shrinking rural populations. That's going to lead to problems if we aren't conscious of it and studying the situation. Besides that, I didn't see a price tag so who is to say this survey was all that expensive. I've certainly seen others that were worthy of criticism but I don't get that here.
Hammer and Sycamore
The Sycamore Level
it's almost as if we should pay attention to cities and not let them get to the point of decay
I was just sayin'....we don't need a study to show that programs in rural areas are not "there" because the population is shrinking in rural areas. Of course, the program offerings are shrinking, number of students goes hand in hand with funding said programs. Soooo if the population in rural Indiana is shrinking, programs that are offered to students will also shrink because the funding formulas will not support those programs. Why do we need to study that? What we need to study is "where the jobs went in rural Indiana?" It is my thought that this is cart before the horse thinking and maybe I am wrong..I am fine with saying that I could be wrong. But, the reason behind the lowering of rural populations is economic...there are not jobs in rural areas of Indiana unless you are a farmer (and since we are losing family farms at record numbers). This should be no surprise, couple that with fewer manufacturing jobs which at one point were more likely to be in more rural areas due to property tax abatement, local incentives, etc. cheaper labor, now those few manufacturing jobs are moving closer to urban areas because they can get the same tax situations and have a larger base to choose from in terms of an educated workforce...or those jobs simply went to Mexico (thanks NAFTA) and/or China.
Not saying this isn't an important issue, just saying that I would argue that there is a different perspective that should be studied rather than the programs that are offered to rural area students...and it was an inside joke between me and Boda too
Not saying this isn't an important issue, just saying that I would argue that there is a different perspective that should be studied rather than the programs that are offered to rural area students...and it was an inside joke between me and Boda too
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Becoming...it is and has been since the industrial revolution, well even before that. Following the Civil War.
bent20
The Odum Level
Inner cities thrived during the industrial revolution then we had the rust belt and the recession of the 80s, now it's getting even worse, at least for many mid-size cities across the midwest. It's nice to see a few exceptions and I would add Terre Haute to that list. The downtown has really bounced back.