The Rural School and Community Trust (RSCT) publishes a biennial review, entitled Why Rural Matters. It rates the 50 states on five ā€œgaugesā€ describing characteristics of each stateā€™s rural schools. The most recent report, Why Rural Matters 2013-14, identified Maine as the one state nationwide where addressing the needs of rural schools mattered the most. read more Maine Schools in Focus: Maine’s Schools Are Much More Rural than Most Other States’