Congress approves an economic lifeline for rural schools in California and elsewhere
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In February 2023, Jaime Green, the superintendent of a tiny school district in the mountains of Northern California, flew to Washington, D.C., with an urgent appeal.The Secure Rural Schools Act, a longstanding financial aid program for schools like his in forested counties, was about to lapse, putting thousands of districts at risk of losing significant chunks of their budgets.
The law had originated 25 years ago as a temporary fix for rural counties that were losing tax revenue from reduced timber harvesting on public lands.Green, whose Trinity Alps Unified School District serves about 650 students in the struggling logging town of Weaverville, bounded through Capitol Hill with a small group of Northern California educators, pleading with anyone who would listen: Please renew the program.
They were assured, over and over, that it had bipartisan support, wasn’t much money in the grand scheme of things, and almost certainly would be renewed.But because Congress could not agree upon how to fund the program, it took nearly three years — and a lapse in funding — for the Secure Rural Schools Act to be revived, at least temporarily.
California Four rural Northern California school superintendents went to Washington to look their legislators in the eye and tell them just how desperate they are.On Tuesday, the U.S.House overwhelmingly voted to extend the program through 2027 and to provide retroactive payments to districts that lost funding while it was lapsed.
The vote was 399 to 5, with all nay votes cast by Republicans.The bill, approved unanimously by the Senate in June, now awaits President Trump’s signature.
“We’ve got Republicans and Democrats holding hands, passing this freaking bill, finally,” Green said.“We stayed positive.
The option to quit was, what, layofffs and kids not getting educated? We kept telling them the same story, and they kept listening.”...