ISSUE BRIEF: Saving Our Rural Schools
Ensure that rural schools and communities are able to survive!
The Issue:
As logging on federal lands has decreased in the West, many states are struggling with how their counties will be able pay for rural schools. For decades, rural counties received payments from the federal government through The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, in lieu of taxes those counties could not collect on federal land within their borders.
This issue dates back to 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt created a program with rural America where in exchange for allowing the creation of national forests, rural counties would receive 25 percent of the logging and other resource sales. However, the land was off-limits for development and could not be taxed by state and local governments. However, by the mid 1990’s, harvest levels were reduced by environmental extremism, regulations, litigation and reduced agency budgets, which caused payments to counties to drop by more than 70 percent nationwide.
In 2000, recognizing the stress being put on rural schools, Congress tried to solve the problem with a six-year funding plan (The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act). While the program provided $385 million for schools and roads in some of the nation's most rural areas last year, the law expired on December 31, 2006.
Several efforts were made during the last Congress to secure funding for reauthorizing funding authority, including selling off 300,000 acres of excess federal lands, putting a 3 percent tax withholding on payments to federal forest contractors, and collecting receipts for new drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. However, none of these funding mechanisms were approved.
Impacts on the West:
Without reauthorization of the Act, many rural communities and school districts will face a huge fiscal crisis. Over 9 million children in rural communities could be affected and rural school administrators who have depended on this revenue for the past six years may be forced to cut staff and programs.
Status of the Issue:
Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Peter DeFazio, recently introduced a bill calling for reauthorization of the Community Self-Determination Act through fiscal 2013 (S. 380 and H.R. 17).
Solutions:
- Take 60 seconds and tell Congress to support legislations. 380/H.R. 17 to reauthorize the Community Self-Determination Act. In addition, encourage your Member of Congress to continue to work on a permanent solution to this problem for rural communities and their schools.
Take Action on this Issue