Alan,
Thank you for your comments on rural education. It is exciting to see some momentum developing in this arena. As we know from the research, and the Rural Econ Development policy brief being developed in the M&M Committee, Education is one of the four requisite areas for effective economic development. Health care fits into another one: public infrastructure. Economic development initiatives, no matter how pricey, fail when any of the four areas is deficient.
It is heartening to hear research demonstrating the quality of rural schools. In Alaska's most remote and isolated communities, the reverse is true. The population bases are too small to support the breadth of teachers of subjects that many kids need to succeed. When we slice the data by ethnicity/race, the educational outcomes are dismal and I think parents should be outraged. I would be interested in seeing more discussion with rural educators. If we want rural youth pursuing careers in health care locally, they need a strong academic background from K-12, awareness of their professional options, and access to affordable higher education.