Federal Impact Aid is tremendously important to our district's funding making up nearly 7% of our total revenue.
As you can see from the attached email from the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, on Friday, the Trump administration terminated the staff members in the Department of Education responsible for the accounting, application process and distribution of impact aid funds.
Now, whether these terminations can withstand court challenges, or will be reversed once the shutdown ends, or if they will be rescinded as other terminations have been is obviously yet another uncertainty related to the functioning of the federal government under the current administration.
Likewise, the implications for the Impact Aid program and the funds we receive remain uncertain, as they are also subject to the same series of court interpretations and potential legal challenges that have affected this administration's actions.
That said, the elimination of the staff responsible for administering this program can certainly be seen as a threat to the program's continuation and it is important that we let our representatives in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, know how important Impact Aid is to our schools.
Our elected representatives need to be reminded that Impact Aid funding is an obligation created by the federal government when it took property (Argonne Labs) off of the tax rolls which had previously paid taxes to support our schools.
The "Take Action" section found here is very easy to use, although I would suggest that you use your home address and personal e-mails when contacting members of Congress.
Your assistance in sharing the importance of Impact Aid with your members of Congress is particularly important at this time.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks,
Dr. Thomas Schneider
Interim Superintendent