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Strategies to Revitalize Rural America Strategy #5 Making Communities Desirable Places to Live For rural communities to thrive, they must be places that people want to live. Making rural communities desirable places to live is not the whole answer. If there is no economic opportu- nity in an area, young families can't live there no matter how much they might want to. However, economic opportunity is more likely to be created in attractive places to live because they draw young families and entrepreneurs who start new farms and businesses and revitalize existing enterprises. In recent decades, rural communities with natural amenities to draw people — lakes, mountains, rivers, or climate — have grown. Most farm and ranch communities don't have mountains or lakes. They aren't likely to become the next tour- ist- filled Aspen, and most of us wouldn't want that. But each of our communities has assets, strengths, and opportunities we can build on to draw people — native sons and daughters back to raise their families and others seeking a rural life style. Those assets range from natural amenities, to strong schools, to friendly neighbors. The best place to start is with existing strengths. Strong Small Schools. Small schools have long been a drawing card for rural communities. Communities that make a commitment to provide a quality education in small, community -based schools and invest in them will always have a powerful advantage in attracting young families with children. But small rural schools are facing increasing financial pressures and are under growing political pressure to consolidate. Only local people in each community are in a position to make decisions about whether and when to consoli- date schools or override levy limits to increase school funding to enhance educational quality. But the contri- bution of strong, small, community -based schools to the viability of the community should be a strong con- sideration. State policymakers should not blindly force school consolidation that undermines both education and com- munities under the misguided assumption that bigger is better and more efficient in education. The research indicates that small schools have the best educational outcomes for most children. Fewer kids fall through the cracks. And the efficiency gains of consolidation often disappear when construc- tion and transportation costs are counted and efficiency is measured in cost per graduate. Small schools graduate a higher percentage of their students. There are opportunities for communities to work together in ways that enable them to keep and strengthen their schools while holding the line on costs. Some districts are sharing a superintendent. That spreads the costs of the highest salary and perhaps enables each district to gain the advantage of a more talented leader than they could each hire individually. Others are sharing teachers and offering joint classes by distance education or by transporting upper -level students between communities to enable them to offer advanced courses with low enrollments at a reasonable Page 14