An Inside Look at the Decline of America’s Rural Communities. The Rural Brain Drain

What is going on in small-town America? The nation’s mythology of small towns comes to us straight from the The Music Man’s set designers. Many Americans think about flyover country or Red America only during the culture war’s skirmishes or campaign season. Most of the time, the rural crisis takes a back seat to more visible big-city troubles. So while there is a veritable academic industry devoted to chronicling urban decline, small towns’ struggles are off the grid.

Rural areas have been losing population for decades, creating what some are calling a "rural brain drain". According to this article, the hollowing out of these rural areas will have negative impacts beyond the borders of those small towns.

By Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Rural-Brain-Drain/48425/