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1
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, Members of the United States Armed Forces and
3 their families are stationed at various military installations
4 throughout the United States; and
 
5     WHEREAS, The children of those military families attend
6 local schools operated by local public school districts; and
 
7     WHEREAS, The presence of a federal military activity in a
8 school district increases enrollment in the district but also
9 reduces the local tax base by removing property from the tax
10 rolls; and
 
11     WHEREAS, School districts also lose tax revenues (i)
12 through the provisions granted military personnel by the
13 Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940 and (ii) as a
14 result of military families shopping in commissaries and
15 exchanges and thus not paying local sales taxes; and
 
16     WHEREAS, Congress enacted Impact Aid legislation
17 establishing the federal government's responsibility to
18 provide financial assistance to school districts on which the
19 government places a financial burden; and
 
20     WHEREAS, Impact Aid payments are provided from the federal
21 Department of Education to local public school districts that
22 educate "federally connected" students, and approximately 40%
23 of those Impact Aid funds go to districts educating the
24 children of military families; and
 
25     WHEREAS, Impact Aid supplements are made available from the
26 Department of Defense to help school districts with significant
27 concentrations of military students deal with the consequences
28 of an inadequate local funding base, challenges associated with
29 base closures and realignments, deteriorating families, and

 

 

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1 inadequate Impact Aid funding; and
 
2     WHEREAS, The Department of Defense Impact Aid supplement is
3 needed to provide military children with the level of
4 educational opportunity available to children in neighboring,
5 non-federally impacted school districts; therefore, be it
 
6     RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL
7 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
8 CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge Congress to take all steps
9 necessary, by means of substantive legislation and by means of
10 appropriation, to provide adequate Impact Aid and Impact Aid
11 supplement funding to the Department of Education and the
12 Department of Defense to ensure that the children of military
13 families attending local public schools receive the same level
14 of educational opportunity available to children in
15 neighboring, non-federally impacted school districts; and be
16 it further
 
17     RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this Resolution be sent
18 to the President of the United States Senate, the Minority
19 Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United
20 States House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the
21 United States House of Representatives, and each member of the
22 Illinois congressional delegation.