The persistent net loss of young people from rural areas has potentially contradictory implications for educational policy. Believing that youth migration to urban areas is inevitable, one school board might feel obligated to prepare students for urban jobs. Another board might view such actions as community suicide and attempt to slow outmigration by orienting curricula to rural living and the local job market. Data from High School and Beyond files indicate that 41 percent of rural high school seniors in the base survey had migrated 6 years later, compared to 32 percent of suburban seniors and 24 percent of urban seniors. Analyses examined the effects on outmigration (overall, college attendance, and military enlistment) of school aggregate socioeconomic status, school aggregate academic ability, rural location, school size, isolated location, and the extent of academic and vocational curricular offerings. School size was the most important predictor of both advanced academic and vocational course offerings. However, neither school size nor curricular offerings had any important impact on youth outmigration. In contrast, relatively immutable structural aspects of schools and communities coupled with individual student characteristics seemed the primary determinants of migration. There seems to be little merit in the notion that rural decision makers can affect youth migration by manipulating school curriculum. (SV)