Political Quotes

“to put it very bluntly, my amendment would increase the Federal appropriation for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]. IDEA is the Federal law supporting our Nation's special education system. It was originally passed 21 years ago. It was supposed to be a partnership between the Federal Government, States, and local government, but that partnership has disintegrated. But let me tell my colleagues what the partnership was all about 21 years ago. Twenty-one years ago this Congress said we have a partnership with State and local governments. We will tell you exactly what you will do, how you will do it, when you will do it; we will mandate everything, but as partners, we are going to give you 40 percent of the money for all of our mandates. Anybody have any idea how much they got last year? Less than 7 percent; 21 years later our partnership has provided less than 7 percent of the 40 percent we promised. We should have been promising 100 percent if we were going to mandate 100 percent. The greatest problem facing local school districts at the present time is this tremendously unfunded mandate from the Federal Government, IDEA. It costs almost 2.5 times more to educate an IDEA student than it does to educate any other student.”