This paper considers the arguments put forward for the closure of small schools in rural areas. The debate, which is firmly rooted in the Plowden Report (1967), has involved both educational and economic arguments. The research on which this paper draws examines these arguments in the light of the implementation of the Local Management of Schools in three local authorities in the UK since 1988 and discusses the impact which this policy has had on resource provision, on the changing role (...) of staff and on the daily functioning of small rural schools. (shrink)