Despite all the optimistic discussions of a rural renaissance and a significant population turnaround favoring growth in rural communities, rural areas are still experiencing a lack of essential services in virtually every area important to quality of life for rural residents. Included among the areas in which a need for improved rural support services are needed are the following: adequate health care, water and other sanitary systems, child care, transportation, communications, energy, housing facilities, and capacity building. In the past, rural communities have been grossly discriminated against in federal government funding policies. The recent migration to rural areas has created an urgent need for improved rural support services. To fill this need and help rural communities realize their full potential, three priorities must be addressed by all levels of government. These priorities are (1) helping rural communities make maximum use of existing financial, material, and human resources; (2) helping rural areas truly gain equitable funding allocations for support services and other kinds of development; and (3) helping develop more flexible programming initiatives and allocation mechanisms that are genuinely responsive to individual community determinations of need. (Related reports on rural development in America are available through ERIC--see note.) (MN)