NSBA Editorial/Boards’ Eye View: The 110th Congress: Pre-election legislation needed
By Michael A. Resnick
During this summer period, the congressional agenda, and, therefore the focus of what NSBA hopes to accomplish for school boards on Capitol Hill, will be to prevent harm.
For example, last year the administration issued a rule that would cut off more than $600 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements to school districts for health-related services they provide to children from low-income families.
NSBA lobbied to overturn this rule, and Congress enacted a moratorium that expires June 30. Now, Congress needs to enact pending legislation that would extend the moratorium until next March, when, hopefully, a new administration will withdraw the rule.
Similarly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would like to bring the $2.25 billion-per-year E-rate program -- which provides substantial technology infrastructure support -- under an arcane law called the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA).
If this were to happen, announcements of E-rate funding awards would not be guaranteed, thereby forcing many school districts to risk contracting with vendors without the certainty of federal funding or drop out of the program altogether.
In previous years, NSBA successfully worked to enact a one-year moratorium to prevent the FCC from applying the ADA to schools. We are continuing to push for an extension of the moratorium, along with a permanent exemption.
On another front, Congress is considering housing foreclosure relief legislation that includes a provision to give homeowners who claim a standard deduction on their personal income tax a one-time deduction for a portion of their local property taxes.
However, the Senate’s provision only allows the deduction if the local government in which the taxpayer resides doesn’t raise its tax rate.
In other words, despite the decline in local property tax assessments, any offset, even to raise the tax rate so that individual homeowners’ tax bills remain at last year’s level, would result in a denial of the deduction. And the political blame would be on local governing officials.
NSBA has been working to remove the penalty provision in the Senate’s approach -- again to prevent harm.
Likewise we are working to ensure that the voucher program for the District of Columbia is not expanded or extended into future years -- and thereby become a model for Congress and state policymakers to build upon.
It is clear at this point that the No Child Left Behind Act is unlikely to be reauthorized this year. Timing is a huge factor: Congress is out of session in August, faces a number of must-do funding measures in September’s pre-election political environment, then plans to recess in early October.
We are not giving up on the reauthorization process, though. We are exploring interim options, such as delaying the imposition of sanctions until Congress fixes or repeals those flawed provisions that over-identify schools as failing or that impose overly broad and often educationally dysfunctional sanctions.
To further prevent harm, NSBA is submitting formal comments on problems with the Department of Education’s recently proposed regulations.
Formal action on funding will not occur until September, and it will be a battle of priorities in an election year.
For K-12 education, the focus will be on the two big mandated programs -- Title I (which funds NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -- along with efforts on vulnerable programs, such as the Secure Rural Schools Act.
Meanwhile, a new funding opportunity has presented itself as Congress acts upon a $6.4 billion school construction bill for building repairs and modernization.
How well school districts fare with the 110th Congress will depend substantially on local boards who talk to their federal lawmakers about these issues and their impact on local schools -- and whether they can do so in a timely and strategic manner.
A new NSBA publication, Your Advocacy Action Plan for June through September offers guidance on these issues. It can be accessed at www.nsba.org/advocacy/actionplan.
Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2008, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789.