Rural School Children Being Shortchanged, 1936

“Our Rural School Problem” by Willard E. Givens, published in the October 1936 issue of The Nation’s Agriculturist

Thousands of our rural schools do not have sufficient funds to afford good educational opportunities. Our rural teachers are the most poorly paid public servants in the nation. When the richest nation on earth permits 7 million of its school children to be taught by a quarter million teachers who receive less than $750 per year, including 30,000 teachers who receive less than $450 per year, there is a need for an awakening of civic pride in the discharge of our obligations to children.

With 2,740,000 children of school age not in school at all, and another 2,745,000 who are attending schools in temporary buildings, there is a need for national attention to the problem of a fair opportunity to all of America’s children.

The rest of this article can be found on pages 6 and 14 of The Nation’s Agriculture.