{"id":40778,"date":"2013-07-29T11:48:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T18:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=40778"},"modified":"2015-02-14T22:24:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T06:24:36","slug":"empowering-our-local-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2013\/07\/29\/empowering-our-local-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering our local schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kevin<\/a>
Kevin McCarthy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Kevin McCarthy, 23rd Congressional District Representative, and Loretta Gibson, Muroc Joint Unified School District Superintendent.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The House [recently] passed the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), which reforms education policy and returns much of the decision-making on these issues to the state and local school districts\u2014where individuals on the frontlines in our communities are in the classroom helping students succeed\u2014while still ensuring accountability.\u00a0 In addition, this legislation prioritizes a critical component to our local community \u2013 Impact Aid.<\/p>\n

Our community is home to the best and brightest at Edwards Air Force Base and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS).\u00a0 These individuals work in state-of-the-art facilities in our community to ensure servicemembers have the best equipment, technology and weapons to complete their mission when called to protect and defend the United States.\u00a0 And we know that our local school administrators and teachers take pride in ensuring that the children in our community get the best education possible.<\/p>\n

As many of you know, because states and localities cannot collect revenue on federal properties, local school districts like Muroc Joint Unified and Sierra Sands look to Impact Aid to provide needed education resources to schools that serve children whose parents work or live on military installations. H.R. 5 makes important reforms to Impact Aid to ensure a fairer distribution of payments, timely payments, and guarantees our schools the needed resources that cannot be reduced.<\/p>\n

As parents, we understand that the success and well-being of our children become paramount as they grow up.\u00a0 Our lives revolve around making sure they have the skills and opportunities to excel, and we know the foundation is a quality education.\u00a0 Today, the children in our communities are no longer competing with kids down the street, but with students in China and India and across the globe.\u00a0 That is why it is critically important for the next generation of American leaders to have the skills and knowledge to help them be success over their lifetimes.<\/p>\n

The best thing that can be done is to empower our local schools and return more of the decision-making\u00a0 to them and this is what this legislation strives to do. We know that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work and Washington should not be dictating decisions to parents, teachers, and superintendents.<\/p>\n

We worked with parents, school administrators, teachers, and community leaders, to develop commonsense reforms to improve student achievement, and many of which are reflected in H.R. 5, including:<\/p>\n