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A study released today by Statistics Canada: Young men and women without a high school diploma includes evidence that in rural Canada almost twice as many 25-34 year olds who live outside a Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) are without a diploma versus those who live in a CMA (14.2% versus 7.7% in metropolitan areas). Not surprisingly, unemployment among people without a diploma is high. 

There are other concerning findings in the study regarding single mothers, people with disabilities and Aboriginal identity but ROI would like to draw attention to the rural/urban dimension, particularly with all the concern about rural school closures in Ontario. While there is a government task force that will look at the issue of school closures in this province, the study findings suggest that there is also the need to explore the range of factors that lead to poorer rural education outcomes and to avoid jumping to the conclusion that centralizing schools in the name of efficiency is necessarily the answer.