Jim Nussle: “I want to thank him and the committee for their support and for their work toward the fulfillment of a commitment that…”

“I want to thank him and the committee for their support and for their work toward the fulfillment of a commitment that has been made by the Federal Government to fully fund special education made many years ago. It was a beautiful civil rights law saying every child ought to have access to education, and yet that beautiful law has been consistently underfunded ever since. Mr. Speaker, that puts pressure on local taxes, that puts pressure on local control of education. It puts pressure on local control, it puts pressure on other education programs, general education programs, talented and gifted programs, and it puts cross pressure in a way that is totally unintended for the very people that we are trying to help. For Iowa alone it would mean $80 million of additional funds for the kids, for the programs that make sure that Iowa's children are available and ready to learn, ready to meet the commitments of a continuing and growing economic demands for those kids, Mr. Speaker. Let us not have new programs, Mr. Speaker. Let us fulfill our commitment to the existing programs first.”