March 10, 2008

Conference Call

Joe Bard, PA, Chair
Jimmy Cunningham, AR

Jay McAdams, OK    

Ray Patrick, MO

Brian Talbott, AESA

Scott Turney, IN

Bill LeTarte, MI

John Hill, NREA

Peter Tarzian, OR

Barb Havlicek, KS

Mary Kusler, AASA

Budget

Both the House and the Senate were considering their versions of the Congressional budget for FY 2009 (2009 – 2010) school year.  Both bills would add substantial dollars over the president’s budget for education and workforce training.  In the House, the allocation is $7.1 billion over the President’s proposal, while in the Senate, the allocation is $9.2 billion over the President’s proposal.

Both the House and the Senate contain deficit neutral reserve funds to reauthorization the forest counties legislation, extend the moratoria for Medicaid and for tax credits for school construction.  These provisions will allow policies to be enacted by Congress in these areas, providing their costs are offset.

The only sticking point from NREAC’s point of view was the adoption of an amendment on the Senate side, by Senator Allard (R-Colo.) to make it more difficult to extend the Medicaid moratoria.  We see this as an oversight of the Senate and we will be working to have the harmful language dropped as the House and Senate begin meeting to iron out the differences between their two bills. 

There is a lot of discussion about whether or not there will be a budget.  It is possible that the political nature of this year will keep us from having a full budget.  So stay tuned. 

Higher Education Act Reauthorization

The House and the Senate staff are currently meeting in pre-conference negotiations to iron out the differences between the House and Senate passed bills.  There are several provisions in the both bills that relate to rural schools.    

Specifically, we are interested in the expansion of eligibility for the Title II, Partnership Grants for geographically isolated school districts.  In all likelihood this should remain in the final version.  We are just trying to keep them from limiting the school size.  In addition, the House version had the Leadership Development grants to encourage teachers to become principals and principals to become superintendents, especially focusing on the unique characteristics of rural schools.  We hope that remains as well. 

Finally, we are working to maintain the CURE Act in the final bill.  This provision is currently only in the House version.  It would provide incentive grants to encourage rural high school students to attend higher education (community colleges or 4 year) and promote coordinated workforce development opportunities in rural communities. 

Forest Counties

Not much new is going on with Forest counties.  We are waiting for the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill that is scheduled to be taken up in late April.  This bill will provide funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We are hoping to attach the full reauthorization to this bill or at least a one year retroactive extension of the bill. Until that time we will just have to wait and see. 

Medicaid

March did bring a positive development in our fight to prevent the elimination of school-based Medicaid claiming.  Representatives John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Tim Murphy (R-Penn.) introduced HR 5613, the Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008.  This bill would extend all of the existing moratoria including the school based Medicaid claiming until April 1, 2009.  This is a critical piece of legislation and one that every representative should sign on in support.  Please push your member of Congress to get on the record and support this important piece of legislation by cosponsoring.  This is the clearest way that we have to show the strong support of Congress for school-based Medicaid claiming. 

We are expecting Senator Rockefeller (D-W.V.) to introduce his version when Congress returns in April. 

ESEA

Progress on ESEA has also slowed down recently.  Specifically, the Senate has been in negotiations trying to get their version of the bill ready for a markup this spring.  However, those same staff just got pulled into higher education negotiations.  Therefore there is little ESEA discussion going on right now while HEA is being ironed out.  Meanwhile the House is just standing by and waiting for Senate action.  Do not expect much new out of them this year. 

Stay tuned for information on any Senate progress. 

REAP Eligible Districts

I am attaching a document from the U.S. Department of Education that contains the 207 REAP eligible districts who have not applied.  The top districts highlighted in green are those that would receive a financial benefit from applying for the Small and Rural Schools Achievement Program. Please reach out to them and tell them about this important program.