Counties that include parts of national forest land within their boundaries used to receive significant funding from portions of the money made from timber sales on that land.
But as timber harvests fell off in the 80s and 90s because of a string of major lawsuits, that funding source dwindled.
In 2000, Congress created the Secure Rurals Schools program as way to offset that funding loss and still provide money for schools, roads, and federal projects within a county.
Nine Wisconsin counties got a total of 1.8 million dollars in 2023 from the program—with Forest County getting the largest cut of over half a million dollars.
“We call it our great surprise,” said Crandon Middle and High School Principal Josh Jaeger.
The money a county gets from the program is split into three tiers: Title I for roads and schools, Title II for projects on Federal lands, and Title III for county projects.
Jaeger says how much the district gets from the program varies each year from as little as $80,000 to as much as $400,000.
Most of Forest County is federal land, primarily making up the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest.
With so little land to tax for schools, even the lower end of funding the Crandon School District gets from the Secure Rural Schools program can make a big difference.
“This school year is good. But as we're planning for the future, we're trying to always look ahead and if you're not going to get it, what would that look like?” said Jaeger. “Do we have to go to a referendum? What do we have to do in order to offset this? Because at the end of the day, we have to provide education to kids.”
Reauthorization
The Secure Rural Schools program needs to be regularly reauthorized by Congress, but despite bi-partisan support for it, that hasn’t happened since it expired in 2023.
The lapse in funding played a role in the closure of at least one school, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
In June, the Senate unanimously passed a reauthorization act for it, but the house has yet to act on it.
“All the house has to do is bring it to the floor and it will pass with overwhelming success, but that is the power of the Speaker of the House. They choose what bills get brought to the floor and not,” said Jaeger.
Despite efforts by school administrators, various organizations, and others interested in seeing the program continue, there’s been no movement on it, so they’re trying a different approach, sending in the students that are impacted by it.
Sending in the students
“If you have principals and superintendents or even lobbyists, and how important it is at times, the message doesn't get across. They have been trying for six months to have this meeting. They have students reach out, and they got meetings,” said Jaeger.
The Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association and FISTA provided funds to send Yeager, the District Administrator and two students to Washington D.C. last month.
GLTPA Executive Director Henry Schienebeck says he’s made about four trips to Washington himself trying to get Secure Rural School reauthorized.
“We realize that those rural schools are probably going to be the schools that are going to be educating our future workforce for the forest industry,” said Schienebeck.
Crandon Juniors Emma Koplien and Lindsey Mihalko joined other students from across the country in visiting federal lawmakers.
Koplien says the experience was “scary to say the least.”
“I think after the initial meeting, it got a little bit more comfortable and stuff, but it was definitely nerve wracking,” said Koplien. “I'm a 16-year-old girl talking to these people who make decisions for the country.”
The trip took on extra meaning for Mihalko who is a 4th generation logger and runs a skidder for her dad during the summer.
“It was just a neat experience to get to see what politics are like, and get to talk with everyone and just express our ideas of how important Secure Rural Schools is,” said Mihalko.
They met with staff from Speaker Johnson’s office as well as those in Congressman Tom Tiffany’s and Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson’s.
Mihalko recalled the meeting with Speaker Johnson’s aide.
All the students shared what life was like for them in their rural communities and why this funding was crucial for their districts and counties.
“As we went around and told our story, we could tell with his body language that he started to open up and listen to what we had to say,” said Mihalko. “Then after everyone told their story, he's like, ‘Wow, this is really important for you guys. We're going to try to get this passed for you.’ So that was pretty neat to see cm change a see a change of perspective.”
While it’s not certain if or when the House will vote on the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools programs, both Mihalko and Koplien returned to Crandon proud.
“Even though we're a small community, things like this help show big lawmakers that we matter too, and that we can do it too, and we can make a change, even though we live here in the middle of nowhere,” said Koplien.
While in Washington D.C., the School District of Crandon Administrator learned that another key federal funding source was at risk.
Join us tomorrow on WXPR to learn how the federal government shutdown is making the future of Impact Aid unclear.
