Political Quotes

“Yes, I would like to emphasize another aspect. My colleague from Connecticut outlined the impact we have had on special education and the impact we have had on property taxes that relate to it. My town meetings just finished in March of this year. In my own school district, only 2 of 10 towns were able to pass the school budget. The whole crisis revolved around the increased costs of special education. Whether it will mean a reduction in property taxes or not, I assure my colleagues what we do today will reduce the burden on property taxes and at least not make them any more burdensome than they are. We used to have balanced programs in our school. Senator Javits, who many Members here remember well, established years ago a program for the gifted and talented. That was a good program and it balanced things out. It said we have gifted and talented young people in this country who need to be brought to their fullest performance levels. We dedicated resources to that. But since the burden has been placed on special education in these older communities, and in the States, that money being spent for our gifted and talented has shrunk so far that out of the $247 billion we spend on the K through 12 programs now, only $9 million of Federal funds are provided to the gifted and talented.”