Mark Dayton: “I rise on a matter related to what the Senator just described, the quandary regarding funding for education programs.…”

“I rise on a matter related to what the Senator just described, the quandary regarding funding for education programs. Yesterday, for the fourth time, I attempted to obtain 40 percent of Federal funds for special education to fulfill a promise that was made by the Federal Government to States and school districts 27 years ago, which today, and if we pass the appropriation measure that is before us, would be less than half of that 40 percent share. Every one of my colleagues in the Republican caucus voted against this amendment, evidencing that special education funding in the scheme of everything else is simply not a high enough priority. According to the senior Senator from New Hampshire, it seems we are putting so much Federal money into the education programs--in fact, to quote the Senator, so much so fast under President Bush and the Republican Senate that we now have a situation where a large percentage of the dollars which we have already appropriated cannot be spent and have not been spent.”