Education Week - February 28, 2018 - 28

COMMENTARY

22
WHAT SHOULD
BETSY DEVOS PRIORITIZE?

24
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Richard Mia for Education Week

Impact Aid Is a Lifeline for Military-Connected Kids

By Jerrod Wheeler
estled in America's Heartland
is a public school where two of
our nation's most defining mottos, "the land of the free and the
home of the brave" and "the land
of opportunity" intersect every
day for military-connected students. At Knob Noster public
schools in Missouri, where I serve as the superintendent, we keep these guiding principles front of
mind as we educate the 1,500 children who attend
our district-1,000 of whom have parents who serve
in the U.S. armed forces at Whiteman Air Force Base.
We are proud of our work to support these students
and their parents, who are engaged partners in their
children's education.
Knob Noster is one of more than 1,200 public
school districts around the country that relies on
Impact Aid-an annual federal appropriation that
provides a tax reimbursement to school districts that
serve "federally connected" children. This funding is
available to schools with children who live on military bases, Native American reservations, or other
federal properties. Even though financing education
is primarily the responsibility of state and local governments, for federally impacted schools, Impact Aid
serves the dual purpose of educational equity and
taxpayer-relief fairness. It is also the law under the
Every Student Succeeds Act.
President Donald Trump stayed true to his promilitary position when he transmitted the 2019
budget request in mid-February to Congress and
included $1.26 billion for Impact Aid funding that
provides support for "federally connected" students.
The president's budget, however, eliminated $69
million from Impact Aid that supports school districts that have a large percentage of federal property, even as it asked for a new $1 billion school

choice initiative. The budget request is now in the
hands of Congress, where Impact Aid has consistently earned broad bipartisan support since it was
established in 1950.
In Knob Noster schools, we specialize in supporting military-connected children and their families
by striving to mitigate the challenges they face because of deployments and mobility. In partnership
with the national Military Interstate Children's
Compact Commission, which offers states support
for academic transition issues, we make every effort to ensure credits transfer across state boundaries and that students graduate regardless of how
many schools they have attended. We also work
closely with parents, school liaison officers, and garrison commanders to ensure our military students
receive a quality education that meets their individual needs.
Some of the Knob Noster programming made possible by Impact Aid includes:
* Character recognition: Our Recognizing Our
Character Kids program annually acknowledges
more than 400 students for demonstrating quality character, citizenship, and patriotism as young
Americans. Impact Aid makes this happen.
* High expectations: An Advanced Placement program offers more than a dozen courses in STEM-
science, technology, engineering, and math-subjects. Knob Noster students increased AP qualifying
scores 600 percent from 2015 to 2017. Impact Aid
makes this happen.
* Student mentoring: Each year, Knob Noster's
K-12 students welcome more than 250 militarytransitioning students, making sure they feel comfortable, befriended, and integrated as soon as possible in their new school setting. Impact Aid makes
this happen.
* Robotics: In its inaugural 2017 year, our robotics
team qualified for the state and world championships in the international FIRST Robotics Competi-

28 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 28, 2018 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary

Impact Aid
serves the
dual purpose
of education
equity and
taxpayerrelief
fairness."

tion, earning Rookie Team of the Year honors. Impact
Aid makes this happen.
* Academic excellence: In 2016 and 2017, our school
district bested its record on the Missouri state Annual
Performance Report-a comprehensive measure of
academic and college-and-career readiness. This
made Knob Noster the highest performing school district in central Missouri for two straight years. Impact
Aid makes this happen.
Impact Aid is the lifeline to performance for Knob
Noster public schools, not just because it provides opportunities like the ones above, but also because it is
a successful, flexible, and locally controlled program
that works. Consider the following real scenario: In
Knob Noster, two out of every three students are military-connected, with many of their families maintaining residence in other states. This makes it almost
impossible for the district to raise the money it needs
for school construction. Thankfully, our Impact Aid
appropriation helps ease this tax burden.
Proposals to divert Impact Aid from schools, including the Heritage Foundation think tank's pitch to
turn it into an Education Savings Account program,
are shortsighted. That will only reduce opportunities
for a high-quality, 21st-century education for our military-connected students and others in these districts.
The federal government should meet its responsibility
and fully fund Impact Aid.
Every administrator, teacher, and professional on
our campus takes seriously our role in educating
these children and strives to meet their academic
and social-emotional needs. While our service men
and women defend our country, the last thing on their
minds should be whether or not their children are receiving the best possible education at home. n
JERROD WHEELER is the superintendent of Knob Noster public
schools in Missouri. Knob Noster public schools was awarded the
2017 National Partnership of Excellence Award by the Military
Child Education Coalition.

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Education Week - February 28, 2018

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