As sequestration went into effect in March, some lawmakers argued that the impact of the cuts would not be as immediate as had been claimed, as they would take place over a matter of years. But there are some areas that felt the impact immediately. One of those is schools on military bases or Native American reservations. Because schools on or near federal lands don\u2019t collect as much in property and sales tax revenues as other public schools, Impact Aid from the federal government helps close that gap. Yet sequestration will reduce the $1.2 billion the government sends to these communities by more than $60 million.<\/p>\n
Different schools have different funding structures, but some are dealing with the impact of reduced spending right now, according to the latest report from the Center for American Progress:<\/p>\n
This past month we discussed sequestration\u2019s effect on schoolchildren living on Naval Air Station Lemoore in California. Schools in that district rely on Impact Aid for 30 percent of their entire budget. As Heiko Sweeney, principal of the base\u2019s Akers Elementary School, explained, \u201cFor us, Impact Aid is critical.\u201d The students and staff of Akers Elementary School are not alone in this regard: Federal Impact Aid accounts for more than half the budget for the Dulce Independent School District in New Mexico. In Mascoutah, Illinois, Superintendent Todd Koehl is expecting a 20 percent reduction in Impact Aid this year. \u201cState and federal dollars are some of our biggest revenues,\u201d said Koehl. And according to Dawn Kirby, vice president of the Travis Unified School District in California, Impact Aid provides them with \u201ca lot of money. \u2026 That money has to come from somewhere. A lot of our students come from military families.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some school systems might be able to rely on reserves to make up some of the shortfall resulting from Impact Aid cuts, others such as the Tomah School District in Wisconsin are not as fortunate. \u201cThe only thing left is to reduce salaries and benefits or eliminate programs,\u201d said Greg Gaarder, the district\u2019s business manager. \u201cThere are no tools left in the toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Wind River Indian Reservation in Ethete, Wyoming, a loss of $1.7 million in Impact Aid to School District 14 means a cut of 11 percent of the district\u2019s overall budget. Such a drastic cut in Impact Aid will only serve to make a bad situation worse on reservations across the country. Native Americans have the lowest educational attainment of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. \u201cWe are at the mercy of the federal government,\u201d said an unnamed District 14 school official. According to Michelle Hoffman, superintendent of District 14, Impact Aid is critical in addressing a host of problems: \u201cPoverty, alcoholism, drug abuse.\u201d She continued, \u201cWe have two full-time nurses in our district, which the state model does not cover. We pay for that through Impact Aid.\u201d As sequestration went into effect in March, some lawmakers argued that the impact of the cuts would not be as immediate as had been claimed, as they would take place over a matter of years. But there are some areas that felt the impact immediately. One of those is schools on military bases or Native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-important-news-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35556,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35555\/revisions\/35556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nClick here for the full story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"