Darlene Hooley: “As we talk about this issue, the gentleman is right when he talks about our not burying this pot of money somewhere in…”

“As we talk about this issue, the gentleman is right when he talks about our not burying this pot of money somewhere in Washington, D.C. We send it out to our districts, and we send it out to our States and to our local school districts. And as we talk about the needs of special education, again the gentleman mentioned that this is a program that is 26 years old. We have said that we should fund 40 percent of the excess costs; yet we are up to under 15 percent. And this is the best we have ever done. And if we do not pay our fair share, then the burden goes someplace else. Again, as the gentleman has gone across and talked throughout his district and throughout his State about what is important to them, I too have talked to people in my district. This is important to school administrators, it is important to teachers, it is important to those that have special-needs children, it is important to the general population because we are all impacted by this. This issue, plus the issue of smaller classroom sizes.”