Press Release - On House Floor, Kelly Urges Passage of Bills to Fix Impact Aid Formula

On House Floor, Kelly Urges Passage of Bills to Fix Impact Aid Formula
September 28, 2006

Congresswoman Pushing for Additional Assistance for Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District

WASHINGTON - On the floor of the House of Representatives today, U.S. Congresswoman Sue Kelly argued that the current Impact Aid funding formula is shortchanging the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District. She urged the House to pass a pair of bills she is sponsoring to improve the Impact Aid program.

Due to a series of oversights and missteps by the U.S. Department of Education, which administers Impact Aid funding, the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery School district is not receiving the full funding it needs, Kelly noted. The Impact Aid program provides essential federal assistance to the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District because a significant portion of its students are children of military families living at West Point.

Speaking on the House floor, Kelly urged other House members to join her effort "to correct a broken Impact Aid formula that unfairly limits the federal funding received by local school districts in military communities."

"Impact Aid funding complications have left Highland Falls struggling to preserve its full curriculum for students," Kelly said on the House floor. "The Impact Aid funding shortfall leaves the local community surrounding West Point facing major property tax increases."

"This is not the way the federal government should be treating local families in Highland Falls," Kelly said. "Impact Aid schools need and deserve consistent federal support. They are not getting that through the current Impact Aid formula."

The Impact Aid program provides essential federal assistance to the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District because a significant portion of its students are children of military families living at West Point. Federal Impact Aid assistance helps public schools that include children from military families. These households are on federal land that is not subject to local property taxes, denying the local schools of their traditional funding source. Since the USMA occupies most of the community's property, only 7 percent of the land is subject to local property taxes. This leaves a significant burden on local taxpayers to support a student body that is nearly 1/3 comprised of children from federal military families.

On the House floor, Kelly urged the House to pass the Impact Aid Update Act - "a bill I've introduced to correct the outdated cap that's restricting Impact Aid funding to the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District and other Impact Aid schools."

Kelly introduced her legislation in April to create a formula that is fair to Highland Falls and other Impact Aid school districts. Kelly worked with U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer to have companion legislation introduced in the Senate in June.

Kelly also called on the House to pass H.R. 390, a bipartisan bill that she is co-sponsoring to improve the Impact Aid program. The legislation would entitle school districts like Highland Falls to specified payment amounts under Impact Aid programs, and would significantly improve the delivery of payments by the Department of Education to Impact Aid school districts.

As part of her efforts to obtain adequate federal assistance for the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District, Kelly obtained a $1 million federal grant for the school district through the Department of Defense in June. Kelly pursued the federal funding for Highland Falls through a program she located in the Department of Defense's Office of Economic Adjustment.

While Kelly's grant funding helps offset some of the budget shortfall, she said that much work still needs to be done to fully correct the Impact Aid problem that's affecting Highland Falls.

"This Congress needs to permanently fix the Impact Aid funding formula so that local school districts in Highland Falls and throughout the country have the full resources they need to teach our children," Kelly said on the House floor.

http://suekelly.house.gov/News.asp?ARTICLE3316=20507