Rural communities face significant obstacles in providing access to the high-quality pre-k programs needed to help mitigate these problems. In addition to limited local tax revenues, many rural areas experience high rates of poverty and a scarcity of qualified teachers. Given these and other challenges, federal investments may be necessary in order for children in rural areas to benefit from the research-proven, lifelong gains offered by high-quality pre-k. This paper summarizes the challenges in providing pre-k in rural areas and proposes a new federal investment to improve the availability of high-quality, voluntary pre-k for children living in rural America.