With one of the weakest economies in the nation and a college attendance level lowest among the states, West Virginia has recently concentrated resources on combating its isolation from eastern markets and improving the quality of its public schools. The authors explore how West Virginians cope with these problems.

Robert Jay Dilger is director of the Institute for Public Affairs and a professor of political science. His works include "West Virginia in the 1990s: Opportunities for Economic Progress". Allan S. Hammock, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, is the coeditor of "West Virginia Policy Issues". Christopher Z. Mooney is an assistant professor of political science and the coauthor of "Bootstrapping: A Nonparametric Approach to Statistical Inference".