[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7156]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               IMPACT AID

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. SUSAN DAVIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 3, 2001

  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I am proud that my district is 
home to over 80 military installations and over 25,000 military 
families. Along with most other San Diegans, I am honored to have 
military families living in our neighborhoods and sending their 
children to our schools.
  Impact Aid is vital to communities in the San Diego area who have a 
high proportions of military families. In my district, the City of 
Coronado is a prime example. Coronado has a population of 29,229 and is 
home to the North Island Naval Air Station. During a recent visit to 
the Coronado Public Schools, it was brought to my attention that school 
administrators are having difficulty receiving the impact aid they 
deserve and counting on the impact aid they need. While students from 
military families regularly make up 41% of pupils, in a given year, the 
district can receive as little as $400,000 or as much as $1 million in 
impact aid funding. Anyone who's ever created a budget knows you can't 
operate with that kind of insecurity.
  Impact Aid is a matter of fairness to the school districts like 
Coronado and San Diego Unified which educate children of the military. 
Property taxes and state taxes fund our schools along with some federal 
funding targeted to particular needs. However, military bases and 
military-owned housing are not on the property tax roles to contribute 
their share of local taxes to fund education. Budgets of those 
districts are stressed by large and often changing numbers of military 
children. In some cases, parents of special needs students are 
purposely assigned to bases in districts where these services will be 
readily available.
  For over fifty years, the federal government has offset this missing 
revenue source to the impacted districts. However, the funds are 
authoried annually, and the formula has not been fully funded for the 
last thirty years. The bill which I have co-authorized with 
Representative Kirk and which has been introduced today will assure 
that this funding will be in every year's budget.
  Schools are entitled to this money to educate the children of our 
military residents. We are proud to have them in our schools. The 
federal government should make this commitment permanent.

                          ____________________