Nearly half of all school districts in the United States are located in rural areas.While many of the issues schools face in todays world are common among urban, suburban, and rural schools, there is also unique issue to each locale.Rural schools often contend with poorer facilities, less financial support, equipment and supplies, less experienced teachers, and a poorer economic population base than do in many suburban and urban areas.This paper will explore issues that are unique, or create unique circumstances, for rural schools. Also, discussions on the historical foundations of rural education issues and the future of rural education will be offered.Rural educators often feel great pressure in leading small schools. Frequently the administrative and logistical tasks are the same as larger urban and suburban schools, but rural schools tend to have fewer staff, fewer teachers, and fewer administrators to accomplish the work. As a result, each person is required to perform multiple tasks and spend more time at the school insuring that every task is accomplished.Students in small rural schools often find that they may be at a disadvantage when trying to compete with their urban and suburban counterparts. Larger urban and suburban schools tend to have greater breadth and depth of curricular choices as well as more experienced teaching faculty. Most urban and suburban schools have extensive Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) program that offers students the opportunities to accelerate their education and to better compete for admission into the most prestigious universities. These programs are most frequently lacking in smaller rural schools; putting rural students at a distinct disadvantage.21st Century advances in the field of technology, including various delivery methods of distance education, hold great promise for providing students in rural schools similar opportunities and accessing to educational settings and experiences as their counterparts in urban and suburban schools. Distance education, such as online education and interactive video conferencing hold great promise in effort to bring rural schools to the same educational levels as urban and suburban schools.