The superintendent of the Stevenson-Carson Faculty District stated this week that the agricultural Skamania County district must make “catastrophic” cuts if the federal authorities doesn’t take motion to resume a 25-year-old federal timber income program supporting rural counties.
The varsity district has, since 2000, relied on revenues from the U.S. Forest Service’s Safe Rural Faculties Program, which helps fund colleges, roads and different public providers in 700 rural counties that, like Skamania County, are wealthy in timber lands however lack the kind of land that generates tax revenues.
Now, the Safe Rural Faculties Program’s future is in jeopardy.
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, stated the U.S. Senate and Home should reauthorize this system by at this time to keep away from impacting rural counties that depend on the federal revenues.
“The bill passed by the Senate was in the last Congress, and legislative actions have now been reset for the new Congress (and) Senate, so a reauthorization would require passage by both the Senate again and the House. It’s up to House majority leadership to determine what bills come to the floor for a vote,” stated Dominick Sokotoff, Perez’s communications director.
In November, the U.S. Senate voted to resume the Safe Rural Faculties and Neighborhood Self-Dedication Act, however that reauthorization died with no vote within the U.S. Home.
“It’s just inexcusable that they can’t just bring it to a vote,” Stevenson-Carson Faculty District Superintendent Ingrid Colvard stated. “This isn’t something that’s hard to pass, usually, unless they attach it to some sort of legislation that’s controversial. They need to stabilize this (program) and find another way to do it so we’re not on the every-three-year roller coaster. But, right now, we just need to get it approved.”
In September, Perez urged Home management to incorporate this system’s reauthorization in “must-pass” laws. The congresswoman despatched one other letter to Home leaders in mid-January, urging them to prioritize a three-year extension of the Safe Rural Faculties Program to make sure rural communities can proceed to entry important funds for infrastructure and colleges.
“It’s unacceptable,” Perez said in a video concerning the delay of this system’s reauthorization. “This inaction is driving me crazy, candidly. I have been urging my colleagues to take this seriously, to think about it as if it were their children whose school districts were considering a four-day school week (and) were cutting shop class. I’m fighting tooth and nail to make sure that we don’t have stupid cuts due to inaction, and I’m going to keep fighting hard.”
In Skamania County, lower than 2 p.c of the land can generate tax revenues for public providers. With out the federal timber funds, which account for roughly 5 p.c of the district’s finances, the Stevenson-Carson district would wish to right away cut back bills by $800,000, and minimize its 2025-26 finances by a further $800,000, Colvard stated.
Some Stevenson Excessive Faculty educators now say they’re involved that, with out the funding, a number of the college’s extra hands-on programs, together with wooden store, building and welding courses, might be on the chopping block.
Colvard stated the college district obtained greater than $3 million from the Safe Rural Faculties Program in 2009 and 2010, however noticed the revenues dwindle over the subsequent decade. Through the 2023-24 college yr, the district obtained $800,000 from the agricultural colleges program.
“We knew this was coming,” stated Stevenson Excessive Faculty welding instructor Scott Midland, who graduated from the highschool in 1991. “We knew this was coming back when I was in high school, and we never prepared for it because we just kept getting the money. Now, that money’s potentially going to be gone. What do we do?”
Invoice LaCombe, Stevenson Excessive Faculty’s wooden and building expertise instructor, has labored for the Stevenson-Carson Faculty District for 36 years and has seen the district climate monetary highs and lows in that point.
“We went from being one of the richest schools in Washington to a school that is about to go bankrupt,” LaCombe stated. “When I came here, we received $44,000 for the shop classes. Now, we’re lucky if we can squeak $3,000 out of the district.”
Midland worries that, if the district eliminates the kinds of technical, trades-focused courses he and LaCombe oversee, it can affect Skamania County college students.
“Sixty percent of our kids are going to (work in the trades),” Midland stated. “If they take away our classes, or one of the classes, it only hurts the kids.”
Colvard stated the college district has already tried to compensate for lowered Safe Rural Faculties Program funds over the previous few years.
“We already consolidated our elementary schools and made really significant cuts last year, and so looking at another round, that’s just catastrophic,” Colvard stated. “That’s not an exaggeration. I don’t even know where to take it from. I mean, it’s going to be so bad.”
The district is already making ready to chop $500,000 to $900,000 from its 2025-26 finances because of declining enrollment. The Stevenson-Carson district serves 720 college students in three colleges — Carson Elementary Faculty, Wind River Center Faculty and Stevenson Excessive Faculty.
“The underfunding of schools is really significant,” Colvard stated. “Our costs are going through the roof, like everybody else’s, and the state funding is not keeping up. To lose this federal piece at the same time that we have that going on, it’s just a death by a thousand cuts.”