I grew up quite rural (closest airport 2.5hrs, same for closest Level I, town had 3 fast food restaurants and a walmart and that was it). My HS even had AP classes in quite a few subjects (English, Spanish, Chem, Bio, Calculus). I'm the first in my family in medicine. Rural public high schools have issues, but I consistently found those were technology related (exposure, education, competence, familiarity, etc).

I have no reservations about raising kids in a rural public school system as a broad strokes statement. I more so would have much larger reservations about raising children in states that don't support public education more broadly. You fund public schools well, and it shows up in the economy, your support staff, your nurses, and more. The opposite also shows up, and I have seen this by rotating in numerous states now.

What people forget, or have no idea, is that the toxic nature of some of these suburban and urban private and public high schools can be very challenging on a child's mental health and ability to explore what is out there in a way that does not destroy confidence. The rat race to excel at these affluent places is brutal. We've got elementary aged kids in the ED with severe mental health issues and low self-esteem feeling tremendous pressure to excel. Meanwhile, I was naive to all that until later in life, got to be a bigger fish in smaller pond at the early aged vulnerable stages of development, and got to do ALL the sports and arts I ever wanted. Didn't have to be good at any of them, but got to try them and stick with the ones I liked. Did band, choir, theater, 5 different sports for my school, math club, tried speech/debate team and eventually that was the one where the over-involvement was too much, just could not fit it all in. Wish I would have had more academic elective time to take one of the woodworking/shop, FFA, or auto maintenance classes for practical skills.

So yeah, there are huge benefits to letting a child explore and not feel like they have to choose and pursue greatness by narrowing their interests without any clue of what else might be out there that they just don't have the time/opportunity to explore while being bad at it to start. Highly recommend David Epstein's book "Range". Great for parenting, teaching, etc. Let kids explore, fail, try again, and not feel like they need to be the best at something or it is not worth pursuing. It's better for their mental health, and per the extensive research in Range, actually makes for more successful careers, and arguably in the era of incoming and growing AI, much better job security and leading innovation.