Our rural government schools are not doing well. As local taxes rise and new schools are built, loss or curtailment of accreditation increases rapidly. How does this affect the students? Apparently, not well. The school district responds to the problem not by improving the quality of education, but by sending “mental health” counselors to the schools. These failures affect the poor the most, because so many of the affected students are on Medicaid. Dr. Susan Barry warns against this trend with sound analysis – apparently ignored by the “experts,” who blame the tests, not the schools.