Curious Note Sent Home From School Today (moderate vanity)

My Kids | 12/13/02 | Dasaji

[Dasaji]

December 12, 2002

Dear Parents/Guardians:

We have been asked to complete an IMPACT AID SURVEY form for the District. This survey is needed to identify those children whose parents/guardians are employed on federal property, or are members of the uniformed armed services on December 17, 2002. This information is confidential. Please call the office by December 16th if you are employed at one of the facilities below: . . .

(lists approved federal facilities in the Pittsburgh region)

Postal employees or FBI employees are *not to be listed.*

[Dasaji]

Kids brought this memo home today. Seems a little strange....any thoughts? What's December 17th?

[Chad Fairbanks]

My kids used to bring those home all the time - I think the schools get extra money for any dependents of active duty military people attending their school... I could be wrong, though...

[berkeleybeej]

I believe that local schools get additional financial aid for children of military families and some other federal type jobs.

[bigaln2]

Next Tuesday...nothing too special.

[Texas_Jarhead]

perhaps related to small pox vaccinations? odd

[Flyer]

IMPACT Aid

"The mission of the Impact Aid Program is to disburse Impact Aid payments to local educational agencies that are financially burdened by federal activities and to provide technical assistance and support services to staff and other interested parties."

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

My bet is if they are doing this it must be for money purposes. My guess is some federal grant aid.

[Dasaji]

OK, thanks all - thought it was some odd pre-war preparation - LOL!

[bigaln2]

financially burdened by federal activities

How does a school become financially burdened by federal activities? (Not like the schools need more money in a time when most states' budgets are about 50% education)

[Doctor Raoul]

My kids used to bring those home all the time - I think the schools get extra money for any dependents of active duty military people attending their school... I could be wrong, though...

You are right.

[Doctor Raoul]

How does a school become financially burdened by federal activities?

Parents live in base housing paying no property taxes yet send kids to local schools. Bases can have thousands of families.

[Flyer]

How does a school become financially burdened by federal activities?

I would guess that all the Federal property lowers the available tax base. The survey is the method to figure out how to divey up the money.

[Quix]

Schools get extra money--especially for military personnel who are typically out of State or at least out of city and so are not part of the school tax base but use school services and monies.

Has been going on for many decades.

[Flyer]

We got this one solved quick. No place like FR when you have a question.

[bigaln2]

That makes sense...just didn't click at first.

Thanks

[El Gato]

The basic notion of "impact aide" is that the employer, the federal government, pays no school taxes, as a commercial company, even a Mom & Pop confectionary store would. In places were the federal payroll is large, this put a much larger burdern on the individual homeowners or renter, and thus impact aide was born.

However I thought it was a thing of the past. In Texas the lack of impact aide was a signifigent part of the scenario that led to the Edgewood court case and decision which in turn led to the "Robin Hood" plan for school funding by the state. Edgewood is a school district in a relatively (and in some cases absolutely) poor area adjacent to Kelly and Lackland Air Force Bases. Kelly had a huge civilian workforce and many of them lived in the Edgewood district. When impact aide went away, or at least was severly reduced, the district, which had very little other industry or commerical buisinesses at the time, was in a world of hurt.

Curious though why the Post Office and FBI would be excluded, although I seem to remember that when those forms were sent home back in the dark ages of the 1950s and early 60s, they excluded the Post Office too, but after all these decades, the memory is dim, especially since it didn't apply to me, although it did apply to my wife, whose father worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.

[El Gato]

However I thought it was a thing of the past.

I see by the link above that the program probably did go through some signifigent change in 1965, which is about the time I remember it "going away". So maybe it changed then, but has drifted back to something similar to what is was prior to that change.

[TXBubba]

I had to have my parent's fill out a card every year for the same purpose. We had a big Air Force Base in town. My Dad worked there as a civilian. There were different colored cards then for civilians, enlisted etc. etc.

[TXBubba]

Oh yeah, that was in the 70s and 80s so I don't think the program went away in the 60s.

[RnMomof7]

My kids brought a note like that home when they were in school......(now all out of college) It has something to do with federal money to the school district I believe