Political Quotes

“I rise against this ill-conceived and ill-advised piece of legislation. Yet again the Republicans say that education is their number one priority but every time they have a chance to demonstrate their commitment to education they slash the funding or eliminate the programs designed to educate our children. Since the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1975, we have failed to fully fund this worthy program. It has now been 28 years since we wrote children with disabilities a bad check and today its time to make good on that debt. The only way to ensure free appropriate public education is to fully fund special education. Let us not politicize this issue. We know that the program is working. Millions of children with special needs have benefitted greatly from IDEA. Let us not return to the dark ages where children with special needs were considered second class citizens. Our children deserve better. Not only do we negate to fully fund special education but we do away with our children's basic civil rights protections. By removing due process procedures in this Act, many children with special needs will be the target of discriminatory practices. This is troubling to me because even with the current safeguard, minorities are disproportionately suspended or expelled from school compared to their majority counterparts. Its seems that this legislation is geared towards educating just the privileged few.”