Tom Harkin: “I strongly support the ``Helping Children Success by Fully Funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act…”

“I strongly support the ``Helping Children Success by Fully Funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, Act.'' This is a bi-partisan effort to help our states provide a free and appropriate public education to children with disabilities. As I've said time and again, disability is not a partisan issue. We all share an interest in ensuring that children with disabilities and their families get a fair shake in life. Currently, the State Grant program within IDEA receives $6.34 billion. Estimates by the Congressional Research Service suggest that the program needs to be funded at $17.1 billion for fiscal year 2002 to meet the targets established in 1975. Our amendment would obligate funding for IDEA annually in roughly $2.5 billion increments over the next six years and would put us on track to meet our goal of 40 percent funding. In the early seventies, two landmark federal district court cases, PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education of the District Court of Columbia, established that children with disabilities have a constitutional right to a free appropriate public education.”