Baucus seeks aid for schools on Indian reservations and military bases

Max Baucus, D-Mont., plans to introduce legislation today to secure funding for rural school districts. Baucus Wednesday was preparing the bill to guarantee federal funding for school districts serving children on Indian reservations and military bases.

By TED MONOSON
Gazette Washington bureau

The bill, by Baucus and James Inhofe, R-Okla., would make funding for the Impact Aid program, which provides additional money for school districts near bases and reservations, an entitlement. The program aims to offset the cost that local schools must bear for educating students from reservations and military bases, whose parents are not required to pay local taxes.

"Max believes strongly in investing in education as a way to help boost Montana’s economy and create jobs," Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said.

"His bill would make Congress live up to its promise to support schools on or near federal lands and ensure that all Montana kids get a world-class education."

The change would mean that the program would no longer be caught in an annual tug of war in which the Education Department proposes cutting funds for it and rural legislators urge adequate funding for it.

The Bush administration proposed cutting the program by $181 million in 2004, and Senate and House members responded by including proposals to restore the money in the budget bills that they passed last month.

The Bush administration’s effort is not unique.

Presidents since Lyndon B. Johnson have attempted and failed to reduce funding for the program, which was created in 1950. It was funded at $1.2 billion in fiscal 2003, which was $53 million more than it received in fiscal year 2002.

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