THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT THIS CR ISSUE GO TO
Next Hit Forward Next Document New CR Search
Prev Hit Back Prev Document HomePage
Hit List Best Sections Daily Digest Help
Doc Contents
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. BURR) who apparently
[Page: H8003] GPO's PDF
Mr. BURR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me the time. And to steal a recruit from Maryland is an easy thing for those of us in North Carolina.
Mr. Speaker, I was not here 25 years ago; but our good chairman, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. GOODLING), was. Under his leadership, his commitment, and his determination, he has helped shape education policy for the better. He has been a teacher, a principal, a superintendent. We are lucky to have him fighting not just for disabled children but for all children.
Here we are today celebrating the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act , otherwise known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act , IDEA. As a result, we have more children with disabilities graduating from high school and at least three times the students with disabilities entering college.
When I read over the committee's report and floor proceedings from the 94th Congress for this legislation, I realized that this bill laid a foundation for the proper relationship between States and the Federal Government on the subject of education . Clearly, the right to a free public education is basic to equal opportunity and is vital to secure the future and prosperity of our people. The failure to provide this right was criminal and, thankfully, was corrected 25 years ago.
As we turn to the future, we must fulfill our commitment not just to the States but ultimately to the children. We must not simply vote to fully fund IDEA, but we must make sure that the money gets there.
We have increased funding for this program 115 percent since 1995, well over $2.6 billion. However, we can do better. We should be funding 40 percent of the average per-pupil expenditure to the State and not a penny less.
As leaders of this Nation, we expect so much from our teachers, our administrators, and our children. It is their turn to expect no less of us. We cannot let them down.
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of this landmark legislation, we must remember its intent and continue to press for full funding.
Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Chairman GOODLING) for his dedication, for his focus, for his commitment not just to disabled children but to all children.
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. GIBBONS).
Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me the time.
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate and commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Chairman GOODLING) and the ranking minority member, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. KILDEE), for their hard work on this very important part of our children's education .
Mr. Speaker, I rise in proud support today of H. Con. Res. 399, to recognize the 25th anniversary of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act , later renamed the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act , or IDEA.
This law currently benefits 200,000 infants and toddlers, as well as 600,000 preschoolers and over 5.4 million school-aged children in the United States.
Mr. Speaker, these numbers are indeed impressive, but we must do more. We must look beyond these numbers to see how IDEA has improved and enriched education in America. IDEA has enabled millions of students with disabilities to stay in public school and receive a quality education . These students have the opportunity to learn and interact with other children in the classroom and on the playground. And these same children grow up and enroll in college and graduate programs, fully recognizing and realizing their potential and making a real difference in their communities and families.
IDEA has also united parents, teachers, and school administrators who work together to develop quality education programs that fully meet the needs of every child. IDEA provides the funds for these accomplishments to occur every day in every school across this country.
Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate this 25th anniversary, it is my hope that we can continue our work to fully fund IDEA so that millions more children will have the opportunity to receive the same quality public education .
[Time: 14:30]
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, we have come a long, long way in the last 6 years toward meeting that goal of helping to fund special education back in the local school districts. Now that the ball is rolling, I will not be here but I hope those Members who will will keep that ball rolling so that we can get an extra $95 million to Los Angeles each year, an extra $76 million to Chicago, an extra $170 million to New York City, an extra $16 million to Dallas, an extra $23 million to Houston, an extra $8 million to San Antonio, an extra $5 million to Fort Worth, an extra $13 million to Tallahassee, an extra $30 million to Jacksonville, an extra $26 million to Orlando, an extra $29 million to Tampa, an extra $12 million to Washington, D.C., an extra $8 million to St. Louis, and yes, an extra $1 million to the little city of York of 49,000 people.
My colleagues have a big job ahead of them; and I know that those who will be left behind, I do not know whether that is being left behind because they are still here or not but those of them who will remain in the Congress have a big job to make sure that we get to that 40 percent.
All of those who spoke today, I would encourage them to lead that fight. It will be the greatest thing they can do, bar none, to help a local school district.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in honoring the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act . This legislation was a great achievement in the fight for equality of education for all American children. For too long, children with special educational needs were neglected, ignored, or even confined to institutions. Congress made necessary and appropriate revisions to the law in 1997, renaming it the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. These amendments to the law kept the spirit of the original Education for All Handicapped Children Act , by reaffirming that handicapped and special needs children have the opportunity to the free public education that is available to other American children.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, Congress has not lived up to its end of the agreement to provide an important part of the funds necessary to carry out the provisions of the legislation. As you know, Mr. Speaker, on May 2nd of this year, the House overwhelmingly adopted H.R. 4055, which authorized Congressional appropriators to increase fiscal year 2001 funding for IDEA by two billion dollars, and to continue to increase the funding for IDEA in each subsequent year until the year 2010 when the federal government should fund IDEA at 40% of the cost of the program. As you are aware, this is level of funding that is required by the 1997 revisions to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.
Sadly, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have ignored the overwhelming support for meeting the federal obligation set under IDEA and instead offered a lower amount in the appropriations legislation being considered this year. The budgets of our school districts are being decimated because Congress is not funding IDEA at the mandated level. In California the budget gap state-wide is estimated to be 1.2 billion dollars. The San Mateo County School district has had to cover the 19 million dollars that full IDEA funding would have provided.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot fathom why Congress would want to make local school districts chose between education children with special needs or eliminating music and art programs, yet this is the path we are following. I urge my colleagues who are working on the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations legislation to accept the funding levels established in H.R. 4055 and add the necessary 2 billion dollars to IDEA funding this year, and to ensure that IDEA is funded at the mandated level by 2010.
Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, as a long-time supporter of fulfilling the Federal Government's commitment to fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) at 40 percent, this Member rises in strong support of H. Con. Res. 399, recognizing the 25th Anniversary of the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975.
According to the Committee for Education Funding, before enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act into law, more than one million children with disabilities were denied an education in America's public schools. This law incorporated all levels of government to ensure that children with disabilities had access to a ``free appropriate public education'' that requires special education and related services. Currently, more
[Page: H8004] GPO's PDF
Within the State Grant Program of the IDEA, approximately $240 million is sent to 407 Nebraska school districts or approved cooperatives that serve children with disabilities, ages birth to five years. About $4.3 million supports discretionary projects to help meet IDEA requirements for children with disabilities, ages birth to 21 years, and approximately $800,000 is available for school improvement projects. In the 1999-2000 school year alone, 43,531 children and youth in the State of Nebraska benefitted from the IDEA State Grant program.
Mr. Speaker, while this improvement is good news, this Member will continue full funding of the Federal Government's forth percent commitment to IDEA. Meeting the IDEA requirements set by Congress 25 years ago will provide relief to our local school districts and will ensure the continued success of IDEA and its goal of creating productive members of society within the disability community.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today as cosponsor and supporter of H. Con. Res. 399, which recognizes the 25th anniversary of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now know as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.
When the Education for All handicapped Children Act was first signed into law on November 29, 1975, it marked an historic milestone for children with disabilities. For the first time, special needs children were guaranteed access to a free and appropriate education.
Unfortunately, since this legislation was first signed into law, the Federal government has been remiss in paying for its full share of the costs associated with educating special needs children. The original act set forth a framework whereby 40 percent of the average costs of educating a special needs child would be paid by the Federal government. To date, that level has never been reached. As a result, state and local school districts have been forced to divert money from other needed services, including school construction and teacher training, to pay for the government's share of IDEA.
Congress, over the past six years, has done incredible work to provide additional funding for IDEA over and above the Administration's requested level, doubling the amount of money the Federal government is providing to state and local school districts to pay for the costs associated with this program. Unfortunately, the funding still falls short of the 40 percent the Federal government committed to paying for IDEA.
I am pleased that the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4055, the IDEA Full Funding Act, earlier this year. However, despite the importance of fully funding our obligation under IDEA, H.R. 4055 is still pending in the Senate.
I would hope that my colleagues in the other body will take the opportunity of the 25th Anniversary of this critical education program to pass H.R. 4055, and once and for all meet the Federal government's funding obligation to IDEA.
I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. GOODLING, for introducing this legislation, and for all his hard work toward ensuring the Federal government honors its commitment to special needs children. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to explain why I must oppose H. Con. Res. 399, which celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). My opposition to H. Con. Res. 399 is based on the simple fact that there is a better way to achieve the laudable goal of educating children with disabilities than through an unconstitutional program and thrusts children, parents, and schools into an administrative quagmire. Under the IDEA law celebrated by this resolution, parents and schools often become advisories and important decisions regarding a child's future are made via litigation. I have received complaints from a special education administrator in my district that unscrupulous trial lawyers are manipulating the IDEA process to line their pockets at the expenses of local school districts. Of course, every dollar a local school district has to spend on litigation is a dollar the district cannot spend educating children.
IDEA may also force local schools to deny children access to the education that best suits their unique needs in order to fulfill the federal command that disabled children be educated ``in the least restrictive setting,'' which in practice means mainstreaming. Many children may thrive in a mainstream classroom environment, however, some children may be mainstreamed solely because school officials believe it is required by federal law, even though the mainstream environment is not the most appropriate for that child.
On May 10, 1994, Dr. Mary Wagner testified before the Education Committee that disabled children who are not placed in a mainstream classroom graduate from high school at a much higher rate than disabled children who are mainstreamed. Dr. Wagner quite properly accused Congress of sacrificing children to ideology.
IDEA also provides school personal with incentives to over-identify children as learning disabled, thus unfairly stigmatizing many children and, in a vicious cycle, leading to more demands for increased federal spending on IDEA also IDEA encourages the use of the dangerous drug Retalin for the purpose of getting education subsidies. Instead of celebrating and increasing spending on a federal program that may actually damage the children it claims to help, Congress should return control over education to those who best know the child's needs: parents. In order to restore parental control to education, I have introduced the Family Education Freedom Act (HR 935), which provides parents with a $3,000 per child tax credit to pay for K-12 education expenses. My tax credit would be of greatest benefit to parents of children with learning disabilities because it would allow them to devote more of their resources to ensure their children get an education that meets the child's unique needs.
In conclusion, I would remind my colleagues that parents and local communities know their children so much better than any federal bureaucrat, and they can do a better job of meeting a child's needs than we in Washington. There is no way that my grandchildren, and some young boy or girl in Los Angeles, CA or New York City can be educated by some sort of ``Cookie Cutter'' approach. Thus, the best means of helping disabled children is to empower their parents with the resources to make sure their children receives an education suited to that child's special needs, instead of an education that scarifies that child's best interest on the altar of the ``Washington-knows-best'' ideology.
I therefore urge my colleagues to join with me in helping parents of special needs children provide their children with a quality education that meets the child's needs by repealing federal mandates that divert resources away from helping children and, instead, embrace my Family Education Freedom Act.
Mrs. KELLY. Mr. Speaker, in anticipation of the 25th Anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, I rise today to urge my colleagues to join with me in acknowledging the good this program has done for our children and their future.
Almost twenty-five years ago, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This landmark legislation established the federal policy of ensuring that all children, regardless of nature or severity of their disability, have the right to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Throughout the years, Congress has seen fit to update this legislation, first to create a preschool grant program and an early intervention program to serve the needs of children starting at birth and going through the age of five. Since 1990, this program has been known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Improvements made to IDEA in 1997 changed the focus of the educational process of disabled children from the procedural requirements to individualized education programs to better serve our children. In 1997, we also implemented behavioral and intervention strategies for those children whose behavior impedes the learning process.
Today, IDEA serves approximately 200,000 infants and toddlers, 600,000 preschoolers, and 5,400,000 children from 6 to 21 years old. It is through efforts of this program that we have seen a substantial increase in the numbers of disabled students graduate high school, and the number of disabled students who enroll in college.
However, much still needs to be done to make this program reach its potential. Almost twenty-five years after its enactment, this program is only being funded at 13% of the federal share. Originally Congress committed itself to covering 40% of the costs of this program. Since 1995, the funding for this program has increased by almost 115%, which is an increase of over $2.6 billion. Yet, even after this sustained funding increase, this program is still grossly underfunded.
When I arrived in Congress in 1995, I began working with Chairman GOODLING to fight for increased funding for this program. Throughout the past six years, full funding for this program has remained one of my top education pri orities. If the federal government fully funded its share of the costs of this program, my own state of New York would have received $1.087 billion for fiscal year 2000, instead of the $344.3 million it did get. Fully funding our part would help to ease the burdens on our local taxpayers who bear the brunt of education cos ts.
THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT THIS CR ISSUE GO TO
Next Hit Forward Next Document New CR Search
Prev Hit Back Prev Document HomePage
Hit List Best Sections Daily Digest Help
Doc Contents