On average, local governments in nonmetropolitan counties spent about 10% less per pupil on primary and secondary education than local governments in metro counties in 1982. However, national averages obscure a huge variation in education spending among nonmetro counties. Per pupil spending was about 47% higher than the national average in totally rural Western counties and about 37% lower in Southern urbanized nonmetro counties. Among nonmetro counties, those dependent on farming or mining or not adjacent to metro counties had higher levels of per pupil spending due to the higher costs of providing services to a sparse population. Per pupil expenditures in nonmetro counties were generally lower than those in metro counties due to lower levels of income and taxable wealth. In most states, state aid reduces the relative differences in spending among local areas. Local governments' reliance on state aid to fund education grew during the 1980s with states providing slightly more than half of all local government revenues for education in 1987. Direct federal aid for primary and secondary education fell by about 4% per year, in constant dollars, during the 1980s. Future efforts to diminish differences in per pupil spending between metro and nonmetro counties will require higher levels of real resources. In the face of the huge federal deficit and increasing state deficits, one may expect increased efforts to reallocate state aid to needy rural districts. This report contains 44 references, 13 maps, 13 graphs, and 19 data tables. (SV)