Rural California schools and roads lose millions in federal funding after latest cuts

For more than a century, Congress has given extra money to counties with large tracts of federal land to help pay for schools, roads and other critical services. Now that financial lifeline appears to be dead after Congress didn’t include it in the budget passed this month — a victim of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures.

The Secure Rural Schools Act would have brought in at least $33 million to California counties that have land owned by the federal government, such as the U.S. Forest Service. The money is intended to compensate counties for tax revenue they can’t collect on federally-owned land.

"This loss (is) nothing short of catastrophic," Liam Gogan, head of the Trinity County Board of Supervisors, wrote to Congress. "This is not just a funding shortfall; it is an existential crisis. Our schools will suffer irreversible damage, emergency response will be paralyzed, and our economy -- already fragile -- will be pushed past the point of recovery."

California counties from Imperial to Del Norte use Secure Rural Schools funds for schools and roads, but some money also goes toward emergency services, wildfire safety and other needs. Last year the nationwide total was $253 million, barely a blip in the overall federal budget, but a crucial funding source for rural communities that have limited options for raising revenue.

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“It’s a nonpartisan issue – we thought it would be a slam-dunk,” said Patricia Gunderson, superintendent of schools for Lassen County. “But it wasn’t a priority for Congress. It’s budget dust, a pebble in the big picture, and it just wasn’t on their radar.”

In the fall, Secure Rural Schools passed unanimously in the Senate but never received a hearing in the House and was not included in the temporary budget passed in December. Advocates tried again in February, with a new bill they hoped would make it into the most recent budget.

But the bill wasn’t included and isn’t likely to pass on its own, as Congress seeks to shrink federal spending amid President Donald Trump’s orders to reduce government bureaucracy. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who co-sponsored the bill, is “pursuing every avenue” to get it passed, his staff said. Many of the counties in LaMalfa’s district voted for Trump, but school officials have said they view Secure Rural Schools as a nonpartisan issue.

Advocates are also holding out hope, however slim.

“We’ll keep pushing, but the time for Congress to do what’s right for rural schools was yesterday,” said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager for the School Superintendents Association, a nationwide professional advocacy group. “It’s such a miniscule program, but it’s a lifeline for districts that rely on this funding.”

Layoffs and cutbacks

Counties’ funding varies depending on how much U.S. Forest Service acreage they have. Siskiyou County, for example, got $4.3 million in 2023. Trinity got $3.5 million. Los Angeles County, home to the Angeles National Forest, got $1.4 million. Counties typically give half the money to schools and half to public works.

In many school districts, the loss of funding will mean staff layoffs, cuts to after-school programs, fewer field trips, delayed building repairs and other adjustments. On the public works side, road repairs will take longer and residents will have less assistance making their homes safe from wildfires.

In Trinity County, the cuts mean that the county will have fewer crews to repair its 620 miles of roads — 120 of which are gravel. In the rugged, remote mountains west of Mt. Shasta, this will affect residents’ ability to get to work and school, and emergency crews’ ability to reach many parts of the 3,200-square-mile county, said Panos Kokkas, the county’s transportation director.

A rural road with debris blocking the road in Trinity County.

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County of Trinity Department of Transportation

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Many of the roads are already in bad shape due to storms, mudslides, wildfires and erosion, he said. In the heavily forested region, it’s not uncommon for fallen trees to block roads or for whole sections of road to wash away.

“People potentially could get stranded, or fire and emergency crews won’t be able to get through,” Kokkas said. “It could be a very unsafe situation.”

In counties that are already beset by poverty and high unemployment, the cuts may have a ripple effect, especially in light of the Trump administration’s other cuts, said Siskiyou County Supervisor Ed Valenzuela. Reductions at the U.S. Forest Service, for example, will mean fewer seasonal employees patronizing local businesses and fewer people to maintain Forest Service amenities — a major tourist draw in the summer, he said.

Siskiyou and other rural counties have limited options for raising the money elsewhere. Rural school districts are rarely able to pass bonds because voters tend to be more fiscally conservative, retired or low-income. Bonds that do pass don’t raise much money because property values are lower overall.

“It’s not like we have the money sitting there in another pot,” Valenzuela said. “When we talk about making cuts … there’s nowhere to cut.”

In Alpine County, where 96% of the land is owned by the state and federal government and there’s only 1,100 residents, Secure Rural Schools provides about 20% of the road repair budget and a significant portion of the school funding.

“The longer you let the roads go, the worse they get,” said Nichole Williamson, county administrative officer. “Our roads already aren’t in the best condition. We always worry about losing Secure Rural Schools, but still, I was surprised it didn’t pass.”

The last Secure Rural Schools payments to counties will be in April.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.