Principal Josh Tripp is grateful for the late-arriving students at Bucksport High School. In a year when school is half online, sports and clubs have been curtailed, and the world can seem as cold and gray as a winter morning in this sparsely populated coastal town, showing up is a big deal.

In rural communities like this one, the uncertainty of the pandemic year is translating into more than teenage angst. It’s driving a dramatic drop in the proportion of students going on to college, threatening the already precarious economies of rural areas and widening their socioeconomic drift from urban and suburban America.

Higher education advocates cite many reasons for the community college enrollment drop this fall, ranging from conflicts with work and family obligations—especially during the pandemic—to lack of reliable internet access.

The latest enrollment information also highlights enrollments by majors—and raises some concerns about whether workers will have the needed skills for certain key industries when the economy rebounds.