Public Law 81-874 - Federal Impact Law

Perhaps you noticed the flyer in your recent kid mail, a half-page yellow sheet titled North Thurston Public Schools #3 from NTPS Superintendent Raj Manhas... if you're like me, you may not have known what this is for or why you should fill the form out and return it to Mt. View.

Below is what I have gleaned from some web searches. I am no expert in the matter but hope that this is helpful. Essentially, the form is for those of you who are active duty military because the school district receives federal funding because of the proximity of military installations (McChord and Lewis, primarily).

Public Laws 81-815 and 81-874 were approved by the U.S. Congress in 1950 to assist local school districts with the construction and cost of public educational activities impacted by federal defense efforts. The so-called impact laws were an extension of a 1941 federal emergency measure, the Lanham Act. The precedence of the Lanham Act, the rising educational burden placed on local school districts near military bases, and the advent of the Korean War (1950–1953) contributed to the subsequent passage of the impact laws. A House Committee on Education and Labor studied the strain on local districts and concluded that unless federal assistance were provided, "more than 1.8 million children in these federally impacted areas would not receive normal school services" (National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, p. 9).

To ameliorate the loss of local taxes from personnel residing on federal lands, the authorizing committees of both the House and the Senate passed legislation (H.R. 7940 and S. 2317) to provide federal aid for the construction and maintenance of new schools in defense areas.

Read more: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2079/Impact-Aid-Public-Laws-815-874.html#ixzz0TfVXS5CX