Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KELO.com) – U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) applauded the Senate passage of his bipartisan bill to safeguard Educational Impact Aid for military and tribal schoolchildren amid the pandemic. The bill is now headed to the President’s desk to be signed into law. The Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act (H.R. 8472) ensures that Federal Impact Aid for public school districts with high concentrations of children of U.S. service members and tribal land will not be adversely affected by COVID-19. Johnson’s bipartisan bill was first introduced on August 25th and was passed in the House by unanimous consent on October 2nd. Senator Thune led this legislation in the Senate.
“In October, I visited with Bennett County High School administrators. They stressed the importance of this program when it comes to ensuring their school has the funding it needs to get by,” said Johnson. “This fix will provide certainty to schools like Bennett, and I’m grateful for the bipartisan work that was put into this to make sure it got done before the end of the year.”
The Impact Aid Program is critical for schools located on federal property. These public schools collect less in local property taxes to fund their schools and without the program would be underfunded. The bill allows these districts to use their student headcount from the 2020-2021 school year, which have already been calculated, for their Impact Aid applications for the 2021-2022 school year, which are due this fall.
(Jazmine Kemp contributed this report.)
