Political Quotes

“today I want to share with my colleagues some concerns and views on this very important piece of legislation, S. 717, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. I express my appreciation to the distinguished chairman of the committee for the good work he and the ranking member and the entire committee have done on this bill. We all know that since the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1975, tremendous improvements have been made in the lives of millions of children with disabilities, providing them with a full array of outstanding educational services to meet their individual needs. Mr. President, going back about a year before that, in the State of Missouri, when I was Governor, we passed our Special Education Act in 1974, one of the first major pieces of legislation adopted during my first term as Governor. House bill 474 was an effort at the State level to assure that children with disabilities received educational opportunities and received educational services that were designed to meet their abilities and to compensate for any difficulties or deficiencies they might have. I think it is clear that we have come a long way. Clearly, there was much that needed to be done, and many of those children, with grave needs, were not being taken care of, they were not being served, and certainly they have a right to be served.”