Rural Labor and Education: Nonmetro Education

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Nonmetro adults today have higher average levels of educational attainment than at any time in U.S. history. Substantial variation in education levels persists, however, among both nonmetro areas and population subgroups. Nearly 500 nonmetro counties have been identified as low-education counties, in which at least 25 percent of the adult population lacks a high school diploma. Recent data show that these counties are likely to add people and jobs more slowly than the average rate as employers increasingly seek skilled labor pools. A key challenge for much of rural America, then, is to find effective ways to raise education and skill levels in places where youth outmigration and low-wage labor markets have been persistent features of the economic landscape.

The following information is available in this chapter:

• Trends in nonmetro and metro educational attainment, including regional and demographic differences
• Economic and social characteristics of low-education counties
• Links to recent research on how education levels and schools contribute to economic outcomes in rural communities

Trends in Nonmetro and Metro Educational Attainment

Nonmetro Americans today have attained historically high levels of education. In 2000, nearly 16 percent of nonmetro adults age 25 and older held at least a bachelor’s degree, three times the share in 1960. The share of adults without a high school diploma or GED equivalent, meanwhile, fell to a historic low of 23.2 percent, down by nearly two-thirds from 40 years earlier. The ongoing rise in educational attainment continues a long upward trend and reflects both the universal access to comprehensive public education and an economic transition from extractive industries to services.

The nonmetro rise in educational attainment closely follows the national trend. Education levels in nonmetro areas, however, remain lower than in metro areas. The largest metro-nonmetro gap—11 percentage points—is in the share of adults with a bachelor’s degree. The concentration of high-skill jobs in metro areas and the lower likelihood of college attendance among nonmetro youth account for the difference in adult college completion rates.

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Trends in Educational Attainment by Age

Nonmetro adults under age 55 have notably higher levels of education than nonmetro adults over age 55, particularly with regard to high school completion. The gain in education levels appears to have leveled off in the generations following the post-World War II baby boomers. This suggests that the rise in nonmetro educational attainment during the 1990s was due primarily to the declining influence of older age cohorts on attainment rates rather than to record-high education levels among young adults.

Trends in Educational Attainment by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex

Nonmetro educational attainment rates in 2000 differed sharply among racial and ethnic groups but were similar for men and women. Non-Hispanic Whites were at least twice as likely to have a college degree as those of other major racial and ethnic groups. Among all groups, nonmetro Hispanics had the least amount of formal education, with about half completing high school and only 6 percent completing 4 years of college. A large share of nonmetro Hispanics are immigrants from countries where secondary education is far less accessible than in the United States.

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Economic and Social Characteristics of Low-Education Counties

To capture the wide geographic variation in rural educational attainment, ERS has identified low-education counties as those in which at least one of every four adults age 25-64 has not completed high school. In 2000, there were 622 low-education counties, 499 in nonmetro areas and 123 in metro areas. Nearly 9 out of 10 low-education counties are located in the South, including a majority of southern counties with historically large shares of Blacks and Hispanics. In the West, low-education counties are similarly concentrated in areas with large ethnic minority populations.

More than half of all nonmetro low-education counties are persistently poor or have low rates of employment. Key geographic concentrations of rural low-education counties closely track similar concentrations of persistent poverty and low employment from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to the Rio Grande Valley. Nearly half of the remaining nonmetro low-education counties—neither persistently poor nor with low employment—are dependent on manufacturing. Their relative prosperity is due largely to the presence of factory jobs that provide less-educated workers with stable work at family-sustaining wages. The long-term decline in manufacturing, however, may present a significant challenge to the future economic well-being of this group of low-education counties.

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Rural Education and Local Communities

The critical role of education in local, regional, and national economic development has become a central public policy issue in recent years. Rural communities view increased investment in the knowledge and skills of their youth as an important part of a long-term economic development strategy. Yet these areas are also sensitive to the potential loss of their younger residents to areas with better educational and job opportunities.

Policymakers are faced with two key questions: First, to what extent does a better educated population lead to greater economic growth? Second, can improving local schools ultimately raise educational attainment and create a more productive and attractive community?

Early evidence indicates that higher performing rural schools lead to higher earnings for individuals and faster growth for communities. But higher educational achievement may actually stimulate outmigration as youths leave to attend colleges or take more skilled jobs. Improving education without simultaneously improving job prospects in the local labor market is therefore likely to have limited impact.

To provide better information about the effects of education on local economic development, ERS has developed an internal program of analysis and cosponsors extramural research in cooperation with other institutions. Detailed research findings have been published in several outlets:

• The Role of Education: Promoting the Social and Economic Vitality of Rural America , a major policy report produced by ERS and the Southern Rural Development Center based on a national conference on rural education.

• Special issues on rural education in the Review of Regional Studies and the Journal of Research in Rural Education (free online).

• Education as A Rural Development Strategy, Amber Waves, Nov. 2005.

Additional information is available in the Rural Development Strategies briefing room on the ERS website.

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