A new study finds Georgia ranks near the bottom when it comes to rural students who graduate high school. According to the non-profit group, Rural School and Community Trust, less than 60-percent of rural students in Georgia graduate from high school. That's third from the bottom compared to the rest of the country.
The report called, "Why Rural Matters 2009," took a detailed look at how states are doing when it comes to serving rural students. The results show many states, including Georgia, are not doing well. Jerry Johnson was lead researcher on the sudy and says these students are starting out behind.
"It makes sense that they would need more in order to catch up with their peers going to school in other settings and what our findings suggest is that they're not even getting the same. They need more and they're actually getting less."
Close to half of Georgia's half-million rural students live in poverty. Data from the United States Census Bureau and the National Center for Education was used in the report.

Tags: Georgia, education, rural schools, Rural School and Community Trust, Why Rural Matters 2009, GPB Education