This document consists of the 10 issues of the newsletter Rural Policy Matters published in 1999. The newsletter seeks to promote understanding of the complex issues affecting rural schools and communities, to inform the public debate over rural education policy, and to report what rural people are doing to shape education policy in their state. Topics in 1999 included: grassroots action to reform public policies in various states, highlights from an electronic symposium on standards, telecommunications discounts for rural areas, the Vermont Department of Education's support for small schools, eligibility of poor rural schools for interest-free Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, the effects of long bus rides on children, the relationships of school violence to school size and rural-urban location, the benefits of small school size in Montana, a Colorado election on school district deconsolidation, accountability systems in states with decentralized or centralized decision-making authority, the cost of busing, school modernization bills before Congress, housing development and resegregation, the number of students per school board as a measure of local control, findings that Nebraska small schools compare well to large schools on costs per high school graduate, involving students in school decision making, rural teacher shortages, schools as the center of community, and place-based education. (SV)