State budget crises, along with voter-passed initiatives limiting property tax levies, have severely reduced school financing in many states in recent years. Rural schools may be particularly vulnerable in that they are typically less able to generate revenue because funding often is tied to enrollment, rural districts tend to have lower property value assessments, and citizens may be unwilling to pay for school facility improvements. Such funding limitations make every source of school revenue essential for rural school districts. A potentially important source of new revenue for rural school districts is the Secure Rural Schools Act (SRSA, technically the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, Public Law 106?393). The passage of the SRSA has the potential to have a substantial effect on rural school funding in some areas. But will it? The amount of money actually reaching school districts in the counties with federal lands varies widely and depends on how money is allocated between schools and roads (which is dictated by state law) and how the federal payments are treated in state school finance systems. In this article the authors examine the background and provisions of the SRSA along with the legal and administrative context in which SRSA will function. Their findings indicate that, although SRSA is a move in the right direction, it has not reached the goal of making rural schools secure. (Contains 4 figures and 19 footnotes.)