Jeff Bingaman: “I know he has been substantially supportive on a lot of these efforts over many years. I very much appreciate that. Let…”

“I know he has been substantially supportive on a lot of these efforts over many years. I very much appreciate that. Let me try to be clear as to my understanding, and he can correct me if I am wrong. He has indicated that, yes, there is no money for the program that we authorized for dropout prevention--the $125 million per year authorization; there are zero funds in there for that. Although there was nearly $11 million in the current year funding, there is nothing in this upcoming year. He has indicated that there are a couple of other places where school districts can use funds for this purpose if they choose to. One is that they can spend up to 1 percent--or they are required to spend 1 percent on either failing schools or dropout prevention, as I understand it.”