March Advocate: Rural Education Achievement Program Funding Cut
Each month, the AASA policy and advocacy team writes an
article that is shared with our state association executive directors, which
they can run in their state newsletters as a way to build a direct link between
AASA and our affiliates as well as AASA advocacy and our superintendents. The
article is called The Advocate, and here is the March 2020 edition.
A Big Win for Rural School
Districts
In the late 1990s, AASA along with the National Education Association
and the National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition worked together to ensure
that No Child Left Behind contained a new funding stream dedicated to small and
poor rural school districts. Realizing that rural districts struggled to
leverage the formula funding in Title I, Title II, IDEA and other federal
programs, we created a formula funding stream, known as the Rural Education
Achievement Program (REAP) that was intended to help offset low federal funding
and the diseconomies of scale these districts experience.
Since 2002, rural districts across the nation have relied on
REAP funds to purchase supplies and make technology upgrades; expand curricular
offerings; provide distance learning opportunities; fund transportation; and,
support professional development activities. Given the bipartisan support for
rural districts, the REAP program was incorporated into ESSA in 2015.
REAP is divided into two sub-programs, the Small and Rural
Schools Program and the Rural and Low-Income Schools Program. The Department
has chosen to target the Rural and Low-Income Schools Program (RLIS)
Program.
Issue: In early February, the Department quietly sent letters out to
states notifying them that they are no longer able to deem certain districts as
“high poverty” if they do not meet the 20 percent Census Bureau definition of
poverty. Since 2002, the Department permitted states to qualify districts for
RLIS based on an alternative poverty calculation such as a high rate of
free-and-reduced priced lunch. States opted for this flexibility because census
poverty data is often a poor metric for measuring poverty in large, rural areas
and felt these districts should be eligible for RLIS funding.
After sending notices to States that they were cutting funding
to hundreds of rural districts, the Department faced considerable political
backlash, which AASA helped to organize. Consequently, the Department announced States would be allowed
to distribute funding to districts in using FRLP data for FY20, avoiding an
immediate and arbitrary funding cut to rural districts. The Department’s
reversal came about as a result of a New York Times story on February 28 that
highlighted the issue as well as a letter on March 3 sent by 21 Senators, including Sen. Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, urging Secretary DeVos to reverse course and allow the
funding to go out as planned in FY20. In addition, President Trump tweeted
his concern from the fall-out of cuts to rural districts.
Next Steps: This victory for rural districts was a result of
behind-the-scenes advocacy by our team and we plan to proactively work
with Congress to address
any outstanding policy issues with RLIS funding. As a result of Congressional
and political scrutiny, the Department revised the list of districts that would
have lost funding if the Secretary did not rescind her initial decision. The
list is available here. We will continue to fight to ensure these rural
districts receive the funding they need in 2021 and beyond.