Schumer's Highland Falls "Fix" Clears Key Senate Committee - Legislation that would Dramatically Increase Federal Aid to Cash-Strapped School District now Heads to Full Senate for a Vote

Press Release

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced that a permanent fix for the chronically low funding received by the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery School District has passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. This critical fix now heads to the Senate floor for a vote as part of the Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013, which reauthorizes and amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Schumer was originally successful in getting a temporary 2 year fix into the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 that was signed into law on January 2, 2013. This fix is set to sunset after 2 years. The language included in the Senate HELP bill would make this fix permanent. The school district is in a unique position, with the land within the district approximately 93% exempt from property taxation due to wholly exempt federal and state-owned land. Highland Falls therefore has a very small tax base and, to make matters worse, has been drastically and constantly shortchanged by the state and federal government. The legislation was officially introduced by Senate HELP Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA).

Schumer's solution would send the school district approximately $2 million more per year in federal aid. Though the ESEA bill must pass before the fix becomes permanent, the legislation has now cleared a major hurdle, passing out of the Senate HELP Committee.

"For too long, Highland Falls has been forced to educate its students while constrained by limited funding and a lack of valuable resources in the classroom," said Schumer. "Today's news that a fix for Highland Falls has cleared the HELP Committee and will be voted on by the full Senate marks a major step towards changing that permanently, lifting an unfair burden off of students, taxpayers and teachers in the district. There is still more work to be done, but I'm going to do everything I can to get this fix passed, and ensure that our Highland Falls kids have the technology, books, and resources they need to thrive."

Schumer has worked tirelessly in the previous months and years to include this provision in various bills, lobbying colleagues and even bringing the problem to the attention of President Barack Obama. The solution's permanent inclusion in the ESEA reauthorization bill is an important step forward, and the Senate HELP committee's approval clears the way for a vote in the full Senate. The Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013 is a comprehensive overhaul of the current Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind), and includes several other important changes to federal education law.

The Impact Aid Program is designed to directly compensate local school districts for local revenue lost due to the presence of federally owned, and therefore tax-exempt property and costs incurred due to "federally connected" students, such as the children of armed services personnel working at a nearby military base. These school districts face special challenges -- they must provide a quality education to the children living on Indian and other federal lands while often operating with less local revenue than is available to other school districts, because their federal property is exempt from local property taxes or their presence of larger numbers of federally connected students.

Established in 1950, the Impact Aid Program is a major general aid source for over 1,300 school districts nationwide, or almost 10 percent of all districts. For some school districts, Impact Aid supplies as much as 75 percent of the local education operating budget.

Highland Falls already receives revenue from this program, but until this year there existed an artificial cap that prevented the school district from getting its full share of aid, shortchanging it by approximately $2 million. The legislative language included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 changed the federal funding formula to lift this cap. However, the language in the law sunsets after 2 years. This new language included in the Senate HELP bill removes this cap permanently, providing approximately an additional $2 million per year to the cash strapped school district.

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