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St. Paul, Minn.

December 11, 2009 12:00 AM

Brain drain in rural America

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Downtown Tower, near Lake Vermillion in northeastern Minnesota.
MPR photo/Tom Weber

Sociologists Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas spent two years in a small town in Iowa trying to find out why so many young people are leaving rural America. What they found was that many small towns are playing a role in their own demise, by pushing the best and brightest to leave and under-investing in those who stay.

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