The Office of Assemblymember Heather Hadwick announced that staff join Hadwick in celebrating the president’s signing of S.356, the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act, marking a major victory for rural and forested communities that rely on stable funding for schools, roads and essential local services.
“Secure Rural Schools funding is a promise made to rural, forested counties across America, and especially here in Northern California’s Assembly District 1,” said Hadwick. “Forty-four hundred school districts rely on this support, and nearly 60% of California’s SRS funding comes directly to all 11 counties in our district. We depend on these dollars for classrooms, roads, infrastructure, fire services and law enforcement.”
In October, Hadwick joined a coalition of rural education and county leaders, including the Fall River and Trinity County superintendents, the Small School Districts’ Association, the National Rural Education Association, the Forested Counties and Schools Coalition and students in Washington, D.C., to advocate for the reauthorization of SRS. National FFA Organization students traveling with the group shared powerful testimony with lawmakers about how SRS funding directly impacts their schools and communities, said Hadwick’s office.
“I’m proud to say Team Hadwick helped make it possible for every single attendee — from eight states — to participate at no cost, thanks to generous donations from local organizations who believe in the importance and power of rural education,” added Hadwick.
Introduced in the U.S. Senate on February 3, 2025, the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 extends and modernizes the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 by continuing critical payments to states and counties with federal lands through fiscal year 2026, providing payments for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, and extending county authority to initiate projects (and Resource Advisory Committee authority to propose projects) through fiscal year 2028. S.356 passed the U.S. House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support (395–4) before being signed into law by the president.
“This was Congress and the president showing that rural America matters,” said Hadwick. “When we invest in Secure Rural Schools, we invest in our kids, our counties and our future. This is about fairness. It’s about keeping hope alive in small towns that have long been the backbone of this state and ensuring that kids in rural California have the same opportunities as kids anywhere else.”
Hadwick’s letter to Congress urging for the reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools is available online, as are images from her time advocating in Washington.
