Rural students who grow up with strong ties to their schools are more likely to return to their hometowns after they graduate from college.
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While many students who grew up in rural communities leave for good after going off to college, some are returning to their rural roots. A scholar who studies education and small towns explains why.
A prairie strip filled with flowers and wild rye grass between soybean fields on Tim Smith’s farm near Eagle Grove, Iowa, reduces greenhouse gases and stores carbon in the soil.
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Farmers can help slow climate change by mixing native grasses into croplands, restoring wetlands and raising perennial crops. These strategies also conserve soil and water and build new markets.
Lawrence, Kan., is one of the communities that would go from being considered urban to rural.
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A federal proposal could effectively reclassify the homes of millions of Americans as rural, not urban – without anything actually changing about their communities.
Not all gay people enjoy big cities, but pop culture has little to say about rural LGBTQ life.
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Stereotypically, gay, queer and trans kids flee small towns to find acceptance in big, diverse cities like New York or Chicago. But evidence shows many will eventually return to rural areas.
High-speed internet is harder to come by in the country.
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Americans depend more than ever on high-speed internet to connect to jobs, get health care and socialize. What policies really work to close the rural-urban digital divide?
The USPS has suffered delays in recent months.
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The Postal Service plays a critical role in the supply chains of small businesses and in keeping rural America connected. There’s no reason it can’t continue to do so despite its financial woes.
Patrons eat outside at a small cafe in West Reading, Pennsylvania, as the community begins to reopen.
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Emily Costello, The Conversation and Aviva Rutkin, The Conversation
African Americans, young children and rural Americans are a few of the groups at risk of being undercounted in this year’s census.
In the rural South, chronic illnesses are common, the population is older and health care options have been declining as hospitals close. All put the population at higher risk from COVID-19.
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Rural America has special problems as it copes with the COVID-19 pandemic.
High-tech tools can help African American children avoid drugs and alcohol, honor their racial heritage, and remain optimistic.
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Often schools close out of a belief that taking this step will save money and help students. Whether or not those benefits materialize, there are downsides for the locals.
Big challenges call for big responses.
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2019 was a big year for dire warnings about the state of the planet, but crises can spur solutions.
Strips of native prairie grasses planted on Larry and Margaret Stone’s Iowa farm protect soil, water and wildlife.
Iowa State University/Omar de Kok-Mercado
Investing in farming methods that improve lands and water, and in rural infrastructure and markets, could bring new prosperity to agricultural communities.
Families in rural areas are harder for the Census Bureau to reach.
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A sociologist spent over a year interviewing black, white and Latino residents of a declining coal town in central Pennsylvania, plumbing the sources of their political disillusionment.
Bottled water distribution in Glenwood, Iowa, where massive spring flooding along the Missouri River disrupted drinking water treatment, April 3, 2019.
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By appealing to the hearts and minds of their white neighbors, Native Americans are carving out common ground. Together, these different groups are building unity through diversity.
Sunset over an Iowa farm.
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A climatologist who studies precipitation trends explains how climate change is projected to make flooding events in the Midwest more severe and more frequent.