This article by Casey Parks in last weeks NY Times magazine discusses the horrible situation in one such county. Central is a young student who seems highly motivated and concerned about the schools, but is powerless to do anything about it. The root cause is the common practice of funding location schools by local property taxes. When there is a very low tax base, there is little basis for funding the schools. Often the states provide funds to districts, but often private schools are able to take away that funding based on the number of students enrolled. The lack of broadband to these lightly populated counties is a major problem that exists across the country. We have friends in Nelson county who face the same issue (or did until a few years ago).