Denny Rehberg: “schools in rural districts face a barrage of problems unheard of in more populous areas. Country schools have…”

“schools in rural districts face a barrage of problems unheard of in more populous areas. Country schools have continually had to confront the one-size-fits-all mentality of Washington, DC, when it comes to Federal education policy. For rural States like Montana, the sun always seems to set on the Potomac, where policymakers seem to ignore the rest of the map stretching 3,000 miles beyond that river. In my home State, our schools fight year after year to come up with enough funding to cover the federally mandated Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. In just 5 years, the estimated Federal shortfall in IDEA funding has cost my State nearly $93 million, money that larger and wealthier school districts in more populous States can easily afford; but in Montana it is real money that comes out of funds for new teachers, computers, books and Internet access. Our families in western and rural States deserve the same access to quality education for their children that urban families have. That is why I, along with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Peterson), have formed the bipartisan Rural Education Caucus.”