[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20415-20416]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         HIGHLAND FALLS-FORT MONTGOMERY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

  (Mrs. KELLY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mrs. KELLY. Madam Speaker, I rise to urge this House to correct a 
broken impact aid formula that unfairly limits the Federal funding 
received by local school districts in military communities.
  A significant portion of the students I represent in Highland Falls-
Fort Montgomery Central School District are children of military 
families living at West Point. Impact Aid funding complications have 
Highland Falls struggling to preserve its full curriculum for students. 
The Impact Aid funding shortfall leaves the local community surrounding 
West Point facing major property tax increases.
  This is not the way the Federal Government should be treating the 
families of Highland Falls and West Point. Impact aid schools need and 
deserve consistent Federal support. They are not getting that through 
the current Impact Aid formula.
  I urge this House to pass the Impact Aid Update Act, a bill I 
introduced to correct the outdated cap that is restricting Impact Aid 
funding to Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District and 
other Impact Aid schools.
  I also call on this House to pass H.R. 390, a bill I am cosponsoring 
to improve the Impact Aid program. This Congress needs to permanently 
fix Impact Aid funding formulas so that local school districts like 
Highland Falls throughout the country have the full resources they need 
to teach our children.

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