Putting Rural Education Issues in Perspective

One way to put the issues facing rural schools into perspective is to look at what's happening with rural health care. A report in today's Denver Post paints a disheartening picture of health care for some of Colorado's rural communities.

Staff writer Karen Auge describes the situation where three Colorado counties have no full-time physician, and eight have only one.

In Crowley County in southeastern Colorado, people die in traffic accidents at a per-capita rate nearly four times that of Denver residents, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

In Baca County in southeastern Colorado, people died of diabetes at more than twice the statewide rate in 2004.

In Gunnison County on the Western Slope, 18.5 out of every 1,000 babies born in 2004 died before their first birthday. That's nearly triple the statewide rate - and higher than that of Sri Lanka and Uruguay.

Health insurance is also a problem for rural Americans.

Most people in Brush (Colorado) work. The county's 4.9 percent unemployment rate is lower than the state average of 5.5 percent.

But they earn less. The median income in Brush is $31,000 - a third less than the typical Colorado household.

And, like rural residents everywhere, people in Brush are less likely to have health insurance.

In Morgan County, 20 percent of the population had no health insurance in 2003 - the state average was 15 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In seven rural counties, the number of uninsured is nearly 30 percent, the Colorado Health Institute says.

Putting the challenges facing rural schools in the context of the rural health care crises should give us pause. There aren't any rural counties in Colorado that don't have licensed teachers and they don't have to face life and death situations everyday. That said, rural schools should be part of the solution to rural health care problem.