No Longer Forgotten

The lion’s share of writing about education improvement for the past two decades has focused on improving urban schools. Given the yawning gaps between the low-income and minority students that populate those schools and their suburban counterparts, this makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately, this focus has neglected the tens of millions of students who attend schools in rural areas. Many of the issues that they face, from the impact of the opioid epidemic to deindustrialization to a lack of infrastructure, take on a unique character in rural schools. And many of the reforms that have proven so successful in urban areas do not translate so easily to rural contexts. This volume looks at both the macro-factors affecting rural schools (like deindustrialization and the opioid crisis) as well as the specific steps rural schools have taken and can take to improve.

In Wyoming, we know a few things about rural education - the challenges, the reality, but most of all, the successes. We believe sound education policy is vital to school finance, teacher supply and performance, and school choice. This book encapsulates these ideas for easy consumption., Rural schools are extraordinary places and often the glue of the special communities they serve. Never before have their stories been so honorably explored as they are in No Longer Forgotten: The Triumphs and Struggles of Rural Education in America. Our country will never live up to our founding ideals if we do not find a way to uplift the millions of students that trust their education to rural schools. This starts by seeing their story clearly - and that begins with this book.

Michael Q. McShane is director of national research at EdChoice. He is also an adjunct scholar in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute.Andy Smarick is director of the civil society, education and work program at the R Street Institute.