CORONA — A historic Main Street with rusted and vacant storefronts is, for resident and teacher Amanda Dunlap, a sign that young people need more reason to stay.

Corona, a rural village of just over 1 square mile about two hours south of Santa Fe off Interstate 54, is bleeding students, she said.

“You do see all of those kids moving out,” said Dunlap, an agriculture teacher for Corona Public Schools, a district of around 100 students.

Unless they come from land-owning rancher families, she added, there’s little reason for kids to stay or return — spurring a brain drain that helped push the population from more than 500 in the 1950s to just 129 by 2020, according to census estimates.

“For me it was always, ‘How can we prevent that mass exit with all of our kiddos?’ ” Dunlap said.

Leade

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