[OC] The "Tiny District Effect": Rural School Districts That Appear To Be Flush With Cash Visualization

February 6, 2026
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By Alex Cartwright
[OC] The "Tiny District Effect": Rural School Districts That Appear To Be Flush With Cash Visualization
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Data Analysis

What This Visualization Shows

This data visualization displays "[OC] The "Tiny District Effect": Rural School Districts That Appear To Be Flush With Cash" and provides a clear visual representation of the underlying data patterns and trends. The visualization focuses on Hey guys. Hope all is well. Wrote an article recently exploring school finance data from the 2019 Census in rural states, and I noticed something both interesting and sad after making some plots using geopandas.

Full article here: [https://samholmes285.substack.com/p/why-the-most-expensive-schools-in](https://samholmes285.substack.com/p/why-the-most-expensive-schools-in)

Basically, in rural states, many of the school districts that spend the most per student on paper actually have < 200 students in the district, which suggests that these kids have it made. Sadly, a lot of it is just going to overhead, like paying staff, bus drivers, and utilities for buildings that aren't getting filled to capacity.

I wonder, would it be feasible for these states to follow in the footsteps of another state like Vermont? They've adopted an aggressive robin hood strategy for redistributing property tax revenue from rich areas to poor, and I'm in love with it and wish it was done in every state. However, I know they have the luxury of rich ski towns where these states don't. What do yall think? Feasible?, which allows us to understand complex relationships and insights within the data through visual storytelling.

Deep Dive into the Topic

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Data Analysis and Insights

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Significance and Applications

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About the Author

Alex Cartwright

Alex Cartwright

Senior Data Visualization Expert

Alex Cartwright is a renowned data visualization specialist and infographic designer with over 15 years of experience in...

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Visualization Details

Published2/6/2026
CategoryData Analysis
TypeVisualization
Views6