Editorial: Bush proposal would harm school funding

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.

President Bush's No Child Left Behind program pushes the worthy goal of higher student achievement and greater school-district accountability, but leaves already struggling local districts with much of the expense. Now the president is proposing adding another cost to local taxpayers.

Because military bases and other federal installations are exempt from taxes, the federal government directly compensates school districts according to the number of "federally connected" children they have among their enrollments. Now the Bush administration is proposing that compensation be provided only for those children who actually live on the federal installations. In the case of military dependents, the school district would cease to be compensated for students whose families live off base. Preliminary calculations by the Clark County School District show that it would lose more than $250,000 a year.

The White House theory is that families living off-base are paying property taxes and therefore create no financial strain on local school districts. Yet the wage-earners in these families are not working at private businesses that pay property taxes. Military installations such as Nellis Air Force Base are invaluable to the nation's defense but nevertheless take thousands of acres off the property-tax rolls. Congress should ensure they remain accountable for their whole impact on local schools.