Rural schools get federal funds under transportation bill
One-year extension salvages funds lost to forest protections
Published: July 10, 2012
The federal transportation bill that evaded partisan gridlock and was signed into law by President Obama last week has good news for rural schools: $346 million for a one-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act.
The act helps rural communities pay for roads, school buses and other essential services, and it can amount to a major share of some school districts’ budgets, according to CSBA Principal Legislative Advocate Erika Hoffman. However, she noted, she and other advocates have had to fight for funding every year because Congress has continued the program only on a stopgap basis, making it almost impossible for these communities to plan for the future.
“The federal government has a longstanding obligation to compensate communities that lost millions of dollars in logging revenue when the government stopped timber harvests in huge forest tracts. It’s crucial that Congress authorize a multiyear extension of the Rural Schools Act. Members of Congress must not abandon their obligation—arising from a precedent going back more than a century—to protect the U.S. National Forest counties from economic devastation.”
The transportation bill, passed with bipartisan support, preserves the Rural Schools Act at 95 percent of 2011 levels, the last year that the program was authorized. Some 700 rural counties in 41 states benefit.
“Now if only we could see a similar bipartisan effort to reauthorize—and fix—No Child Left Behind,” Hoffman said, referring to the current iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is now more than five years overdue for action. However, she cautioned, there’s not much hope for that as presidential and congressional campaigns ramp up for the November elections.