On the recordMay 25, 2011
This amendment is very simple. The most important assets we have in our United States military are our personnel, the men and women that we move around. They get moved around, they usually don't have a choice of where they move from base to base and camp to camp, and this amendment specifically covers those ladies and men who protect us that have special needs children, those children that would otherwise be covered under the IDEA, the disability act for kids, ensuring them a good education. However, these parents don't always know where they're going. {time} 1550 What this would do would start a pilot program for up to 250 kids to allow them to choose whatever school fits their needs best, whether it's a private school, a charter school or public school, and to see if that helps alleviate some of the pain that the families face as they travel from base to base, as they go overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan, so we can take care of their kids here at home. It's a pilot program. I would like to say on our side the only issue that we had with this amendment was its funding source. I have spoken to the chairman from California, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee; and we are going to pull the funding source out of DOD and find another funding stream for this in conference. So with that taken care of, I would like to yield 2 minutes to my good friend from Arizona (Mr. Franks).
