Political Quotes

“The message for the President is very clear. Before we talk about any other new programs which may become unfunded mandates in a short matter of time, let us talk about funding the big Federal mandate which is special education. If you did that, for instance, St. Louis City would receive an extra $8 million; in California, West Contra Coast Unified, $6 million; in Michigan, in Genessee school district, an additional $14 million; New York City District 23, an additional $170 million; and it goes on and on and on. That means that the local school district must raise the funds to support our Federal mandate for special education. That 40 percent of excess costs means that they must pick up the tab, and, therefore, they cannot do preventative maintenance. They cannot reduce class size. They cannot take care of teacher preparation. They cannot buy the materials and the supplies needed. They cannot introduce modern technology. They cannot do reading readiness program. They must raise the money locally to fund this special education mandate. So, again, Mr. President, we call on you to help us, help us meet this mandate so that local school districts do not have to continually raise their property taxes and then can only fund a very small percentage of their students because of the Federal mandate. We have a big job to do. We have come a long way in the last 3 or 4 years, but we have a long way to go.”