Quick hits: How rural and urban areas depend on each other in Ohio; a necessary step for prison reform; how rural and urban schools are alike

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu. 

Can urban and rural communities be successful without collaboration? A Michigan State University report examines how rural and urban communities in the state of Ohio depend on each other. Read more here.

The primary focus of economic development in America has been attracting and retaining businesses, but Don Macke of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship says that model doesn't work in much of America now. Creating slow-growing local entrepreneurships is a better way, he writes.

Rural and urban schools have many of the same struggles, teacher Shane Phipps writes in an opinion column for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Indiana. "There is a finite pool of money set aside to fund public education. When you cut it, it affects everyone, but it affects the already financially struggling most of all. There could conceivably come a day where many rural schools could have to close their doors forever."

The American South must acknowledge how much it benefits from cheap or free prison labor before criminal justice reforms can move forward, sociologist Heather Schoenfeld writes for In Justice Today.