Great Report.  The Center for Rural Policy and Development based in St. Peter has done a wealth of wonderful research over the past couple of decades and their recent report on the state of rural Minnesota is certainly no exception to that pattern of excellence.  Dr. Gregory Thorson has worked extremely hard over the years spelling out the plight of smaller rural districts and he has assembled a number of effective critiques on how the per pupil funding formula doesn't work for small rural districts, even with the additions of sparsity and small school funding.

Here is a link to the education portion of the Center for Rural Policy and Development's State of Rural Minnesota report that was just released:

Link:  http://www.ruralmn.org/publications/education/

Here is the homepage for the organization:  http://www.ruralmn.org/