The President's Budget: Impact on Rural America

If we were singing a song about the on impact of the President's Budget on rural America, we would need to start with basic geography. Where would the impact be? ... from sea to shining sea, i.e., literally everywhere. This week, we begin our coverage with a piece that Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader for the U.S. Senate, wrote to his home state: "The President's Budget Will Not Strengthen Rural Nevada", Nevada Appeal 2/24/08.

We've chosen to begin with Senator Reid's overview, because it gives a good summary of how the Bush Budget could impact every single state's rural areas. Over the next weeks, we plan to give more detail on more subjects, but for today, we've chosen to emphasize one area -- education -- to emphasize in more detail.

See first this "Analysis of the Department of Education's Budget Impact on Rural America", published by the National Education Association and the Rural School Community Trust.

Purpose of Program: The Department of Education was initially created to equalize opportunity between high-poverty students and their more economically advantaged counterparts. Over the years, the equalization priority has been increased to focus not only on poverty but also on issues of federal lands and geographic isolation. Nationwide, federal funding of K-12 education equates to 7.6 percent of local school district budgets, on average. Most of the funding that rural districts receive is through federal formula grants.

Rural school districts are placed at an additional disadvantage because they often do not have the staff
availability in order to apply for competitive grants at the federal level. Teachers are often instructing
multiple grade and subject areas and superintendents are often also serving as principals and in some cases,
bus drivers.

One specific example of the cuts is the federal funding for Improving Teacher Quality State Grants.

The President’s budget cuts funding for Improving Teacher Quality state grants by $130 million
below the level needed to maintain current services, providing only $2.8 billion for 2009 ... If the President’s cut were adopted, an estimated 540,000 fewer children would be taught by highly qualified teachers.

There is much more detail in the study. We encourage you to read the study and then to write your local newspaper, protesting the cuts. Afterall, the future of our kids is at stake should this Budget be enacted.