Frank Pallone: “I think most people realize that maybe it needs to be stated again that the amount of money that the Federal Government…”

“I think most people realize that maybe it needs to be stated again that the amount of money that the Federal Government contributes for education is really very minuscule. I think if you look at your local school budget, for example, in the municipalities that any of us represents, you will find maybe 7 or 8 percent of their budget is Federal dollars. So we are not really talking about a tremendous amount of money that the Federal Government actually does contribute, particularly on the local level, and if that is cut significantly, as is being proposed by the Republicans, then the Federal role, the Federal commitment to education, will even be more minuscule. The other thing, I think, is a lot of people believe that because of this budget battle that we have had between Democrats and Republicans over the last year and because it is not resolved at this point, perhaps that the status quo continues and that the money continues to flow to local districts for various educational functions, and that is simply not true.”