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In recent years questions relating to education and the quality of public schools have become increasingly prominent in discussions of economic development in the Southern Region. Human capital development is the major theme of a Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) Task Force Report, and education has been identified as a priority issue at major policy conferences in the South (Beaulieu, 1989; Jones, 1989). It is generally accepted that the South compares unfavorably with the rest of the nation as regards education and workforce quality, and educational improvements are seen as crucial to the continued development of the region. For rural areas, problems are seen as more severe and improvements as more crucial to continued development of the region. For rural areas, problems are seen as more severe and improvements as more crucial to continued development.

With the widespread interest in educational improvement in mind, this paper focuses on policy issues and research needs related to rural education in the South. The remainder of the introduction briefly reviews the national and regional interest in education and provides a short commentary on the status of education research. The following section addresses policy issues and research needs. Specific policy issues and research questions are based on a review of the education research literature and on state-level education data 1 for Southern states 2 . The overall intent is to provide a basis for further, more detailed research on rural education in the south. Information is provided on data sources (Appendix 2), and extensive citations are offered for interested readers.