SJ0041 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SJ0041 LRB094 12080 DRJ 45282 r

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Members of the United States Armed Forces and their families are stationed at various military installations throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, The children of those military families attend local schools operated by local public school districts; and

WHEREAS, The presence of a federal military activity in a school district increases enrollment in the district but also reduces the local tax base by removing property from the tax rolls; and

WHEREAS, School districts also lose tax revenues (i) through the provisions granted military personnel by the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940 and (ii) as a result of military families shopping in commissaries and exchanges and thus not paying local sales taxes; and

WHEREAS, Congress enacted Impact Aid legislation establishing the federal government's responsibility to provide financial assistance to school districts on which the government places a financial burden; and

WHEREAS, Impact Aid payments are provided from the federal Department of Education to local public school districts that educate "federally connected" students, and approximately 40% of those Impact Aid funds go to districts educating the children of military families; and

WHEREAS, Impact Aid supplements are made available from the Department of Defense to help school districts with significant concentrations of military students deal with the consequences of an inadequate local funding base, challenges associated with base closures and realignments, deteriorating families, and inadequate Impact Aid funding; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Defense Impact Aid supplement is needed to provide military children with the level of educational opportunity available to children in neighboring, non-federally impacted school districts; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge Congress to take all steps necessary, by means of substantive legislation and by means of appropriation, to provide adequate Impact Aid and Impact Aid supplement funding to the Department of Education and the Department of Defense to ensure that the children of military families attending local public schools receive the same level of educational opportunity available to children in neighboring, non-federally impacted school districts; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this Resolution be sent to the President of the United States Senate, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the Illinois congressional delegation.