Political Quotes

“I am pleased go support this important impact aid amendment by my distinguished colleague from Kentucky, Senator Wendell Ford. Throughout my 17\1/2\ years in Congress, I have worked to preserve the Impact Aid Program. Local school districts have no choice but to bear the costs of educating federally connected children whose parents live and/or work on Federal installations. These families are either fully or partially exempt from contributing to the local tax base, and the Impact Aid Program attempts to compensate school districts accordingly. This amendment seeks to restore an important component of impact aid funding which was significantly restricted as a part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill of 1994. Under that legislation, an arbitrary eligibility threshold was established for the children of civil service families when the parents work on tax-exempt Federal properties such as military bases. With that new threshold, school divisions cannot be compensated by impact aid unless these civil service children equal a population of both 2,000 and 15 percent of total enrollment. For the last 2 years, school divisions which no longer meet this test have been grandfathered at 85 percent of their former payment. That protection expires this year, and without legislative action, a number of key school divisions in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia will begin to suffer funding shortfalls.…”