Bob Dole: “I wish to thank the bill managers for including in their package my amendment which directs the Secretary of Education…”

“I wish to thank the bill managers for including in their package my amendment which directs the Secretary of Education to conduct a study of how well students with disabilities are served by the Goals 2000 school reforms. The National Academy of Sciences was selected as the contractor because of its reputation for both independence and excellence. Mr. President, there are three reasons why this study is important and, in my view, way overdue. First, I am concerned that students with disabilities will miss the bus when it comes to school reform. Whether one agrees with Goals 2000 or not, the national debate over education sparked by the 1983 report 'A Nation at Risk' has been important and sometimes riveting. Regrettably, in the past 11 years there has been little attention to students with disabilities, although they comprise 10 percent of all students and are among those most in need of education reforms. For example, Goals 2000 aims for a 90-percent high school graduation rate. Even without reform, the graduation rate among nondisabled students has been growing, to 83 percent today. But among students with disabilities, whose graduating with either a diploma or a certificate dropped from 60 percent to 52 percent between 1986 and 1989.”