Political Quotes

“over 20 percent of the students in this country attend small rural schools. Many of these schools are in my Nebraska district. These schools offer students excellent educations and many benefits including small classes, excellent educations, personal attention, strong family and community involvement. However, until now federal education programs have not addressed the unique funding needs in these districts. All current federal education formula grants unintentionally ignore small rural schools because these formulas do not produce enough revenue to carry out the program the grant is intended to fund. To address this problem I have introduced a bill, the Small Rural Schools initiative to provide flexibility for districts with fewer than 600 students to combine funds from federal education formula grants to support local education efforts. The Small Rural Schools initiative is a common sense approach to help these schools to use federal funds for the purpose that Congress intended, to make a meaningful impact in the education of all students.”