Thomas Mott Osborne: “as I have traveled my district, I hear a lot of concerns from teachers, administrators and parents, and the most common…”

“as I have traveled my district, I hear a lot of concerns from teachers, administrators and parents, and the most common concerns that I have heard reflect on excessive paperwork and litigation. This bill obviously addresses those. We attempt to streamline the administrative process. It provides for less legislation through arbitration. The second major issue we have talked about a great deal here today is funding. I am convinced that the chairman of the committee, the subcommittee chairman and others, are fully committed to full funding of 40 percent within the next 7 years. The track record pretty much backs this up. In the last 8 years, we have seen a 300 percent increase in funding for IDEA. So we are very convinced that this full funding will occur. The third issue I would like to address is over identification. We find that some schools have 40 to 50 percent of their student body identified as learning disabled, and, generally speaking, this is simply due to reading difficulties. So if we have adequate Head Start and early learning programs, we can eliminate this process. Mr. Chairman, I urge support of the bill. It is a good bill, and I appreciate the chairman's offering it.”