James M. Jeffords: “I want to follow up by saying I think it's important that all of my colleagues understand that, hopefully, what will…”

“I want to follow up by saying I think it's important that all of my colleagues understand that, hopefully, what will happen tomorrow is we will be able to make some progress. I hope that my colleagues will read the amendment that we have offered and that we will hopefully have action tomorrow, which will give an opportunity for the schools themselves to make the choice as to whether or not they desire to either spend the money on new teachers or to spend it on special education. It is a simple amendment, and I hope that the members will give it some consideration. We desire to move the process along. It is hard for me to understand how anyone could disagree with giving the local schools that option. The President had this bill put in and it had no hearings. It was put in in the final moments of the last session. I am sure that if we had an opportunity, we might have been able to get this amendment on. This will move the process along. I point again to the chart behind me, which indicates that what we are trying to do is to relieve the incredible pressure that is placed on our local governments by having to fund special education themselves in the States--primarily all of it. We promised to fund 40 percent of it back in 1975 and 1976. We are now at around 11 percent. If we were to fully fund it, it would do more to allow the local communities and the States to be able to meet the educational needs of their people than any other act of this Congress.”