Rural America is experiencing an era of unprecedented demographic change, as rural communities of color are growing--an expansion that is necessary for keeping rural America thriving. But racial and class inequality divides many rural places, threatening rural students' education and rural communities' well-being, and the current pandemic is already exacerbating these divides. If these inequalities go unchecked, they will jeopardize rural communities across the country. Education leaders play an important role in addressing these inequalities. Policymakers must spend time in rural communities and schools, getting to know their unique obstacles and opportunities and, importantly, their most pressing equity issues. They should partner with rural leaders--school administrators but also community leaders like pastors and organizers--to design policies. These policies must account for the local context, such as a town's brutal racial history or the effects of a recently closed mill or long and mountainous bus routes. These details will dramatically shape a policy's effectiveness. Policymakers must change education funding formulas: relying on property taxes to fund schools only perpetuates educational injustice. Rural schools need policies that promise all students, no matter where they live, a well-resourced, community-responsive education.