Federal Cuts Force Impact-Aid Districts to Cut Staff, Close Schools
It's been almost five months since Congress slashed education spending through across-the-board cuts known as "sequestration," which were intended to force a still completely elusive, long-term bipartisan budget deficit-reduction deal.
The school districts that became the poster children for these cuts? The ones that get money from the $1.2 billion Impact Aid program, which helps districts that have a big federal presence (such as a military base or an American Indian reservation nearby) make up for lost tax revenue. About 1,200 districts receive those funds, and a small handful rely on them heavily.
Why were they the poster kids? Because unlike other key K-12 formula programs, Impact Aid isn't "forward funded," which means the sequestration cuts hit right away. (Most schools won't feel sequestration's pinch until the start of the coming school year, but it began to nip at Impact Aid districts last spring.) Plus, Impact Aid districts also tend to serve a lot of children in poverty, so they are more reliant on Title I money than other school districts.
How important are Impact Aid districts to the administration's argument that sequestration would be very bad news for schools for schools? Back in March, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a big press conference with a bunch of districts that belong to the National