Securing the Future for Rural Schools

GUEST OPINION

This past week, while back home in Eastern Washington, I had the privilege of attending the Spokane Scholars Banquet, celebrating outstanding local high school students. These remarkable students represent the future leaders that our communities will rely on, and we must ensure they have the resources needed for continued success. Let me tell you – seeing the pride in the faces of their families and teachers was inspiring, especially as we mark National Student Leadership Week.

One critical way the federal government supports rural communities and schools is through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS). The SRS ensures counties across Eastern Washington have stable funding for schools, road maintenance, and public safety. This predictable funding is vital – it enables our local school districts and community leaders in counties with national forests to make confident decisions, free from the worries about the ups and downs of timber sales and market.

Federal land – such as national parks and forests – provides a lot of recreational benefits as well providing a source of lumber and other forest products. However, we all know it limits local job opportunities and income for rural communities, as federal land pays no property tax. Congress recognized this challenge over a century ago and established a system to help local communities by returning some federal land-use revenues to counties for schools and roads.

These payments don’t disappear entirely when SRS isn’t authorized by Congress, but they revert to a formula based on erratic annual timber revenues, scrambling the budget planning of local governments. That’s why bringing SRS back online is critical – it guarantees consistent funding levels, allowing communities the funds that their schools and roads need.

I am a proud cosponsor of legislation to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools program and will continue to work to get it passed.

The innovators of tomorrow – the inventors of machine learning, fusion energy, and quantum computers of the future – are not going to all come from big cities. Those physicists, chemists, and engineers are just as likely to grow up in a small town – if we invest in their education. That is the promise of the SRS legislation.

As the Spokane Scholars Banquet and National Student Leadership week remind us – our students deserve nothing less.