“Montana kids deserve the best education no matter where they live,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee and the Impact Aid Coalition.  “School districts located on one of Montana’s seven reservations often lack the funding that typically comes from property taxes.  Impact Aid provides a boost to these school districts and my provision will restore some much-needed funding for Heart Butte.”

            In late January of 2008, the Heart Butte School District submitted its application to receive 2009 Impact Aid funding.  Unfortunately, due to a faxing error, the submitted pages were blank when they arrived at the Department of Education.  Once the error was discovered and the pages had been re-faxed, the deadline for application had already passed, requiring a 10% reduction of Heart Butte’s 2009 Impact Aid payments.

             Rehberg’s measure states that “the signature pages submitted by Heart Butte School District in Pondera County, Montana, as part of its application for Impact Aid…shall be considered to have been submitted timely and complete for purpose of receiving funding under such a program,” restoring an estimated $91,000 in payments resulting from the cut.  The provision was originally adopted last July, but the funding was delayed when Congress failed to pass the Labor, Health and Humans Services, Education Appropriations bill before fiscal year 2008 expired.  The provision is included in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill making its way through the House this week.

            Impact Aid is a program designed to ensure military children, children residing on Indian lands, and children residing on federally-owned low rent housing facilities receive a quality education by helping school districts, which have lost tax revenue as a result of the federal presence in their district.  Since 2001, Impact Aid funding for Montana has increased 18.4% and 72 Montana school districts currently receive Impact Aid funds. There are approximately 147 Impact Aid students in the Heart Butte School District.