On Dec. 18, President Donald Trump signed the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 into law as a three-year extension of the program, which was last reauthorized in February 2021 for fiscal years 2021 to ’23.
“It’s wonderful,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., said. “Rural schools are in a very difficult spot throughout the country, but especially in Arizona. So any further support that we can get for both Sedona and other rural schools throughout the state is of course to be openly celebrated.”
The program uses U.S. Forest Service revenue from grazing, timber and permits to fund schools, roads and services across more than 700 counties. Half goes directly to school districts based on enrollment, while the other half is allocated by a five-member board, the Forest Fees Management Association, for shared projects nationwide.
“Since 1908, federal law has directed 25% of all revenue from timber in national forests to counties, and that funding supported county budgets for decades,” the National Association of Counties’ website reads. “After federal land management priorities changed and timber harvests declined, Congress created the SRS program in 2000 to alleviate financial challenges faced by rural counties. Since the program’s establishment, it has received broad support in Congress and has been reauthorized several times.”
SRS also provides funding for conservation projects, with the Prescott National Forest also announcing on Dec. 18 that it approved 11 projects totaling $746,381 under Title II of SRS following review by the Yavapai Resource Advisory Committee. Among the projects was $97,607 for a Friends of the Verde River Invasive Treatments and Restoration Project.
“I’m extremely pleased,” King said. “Thank you, President Trump. And also, one of the things — I want to thank Representative Crane. He actually signed on to come and co-sponsor that bill, and I’m very grateful, and it’s going to help our rural kids very much.”
“I’m proud to join my colleagues in reauthorizing the Secure Rural Schools program to provide vital support for schools in rural Arizona,” Crane wrote in a Dec. 10 press release following the bill being approved by the House of Representatives. “This extension secures much-needed stability and funding.”
