Joe Cunningham: “before I was selected to the Committee on Appropriations, I was subcommittee chairman of the Committee on Education. I…”

“before I was selected to the Committee on Appropriations, I was subcommittee chairman of the Committee on Education. I went through the IDEA bill and the reauthorization. Taking the parent groups and the schools and putting them in the same room is like putting a Persian cat and a Siamese cat together. It was very difficult. We actually basically put them in a room, gave them no bread or water, and told them to come out with a solution. The solution they came out with was pretty reasonable, and there was balance except that when the final bill came out, for example, the trial lawyers changed the intent, we said the first time a parent goes to the school we do not want a trial lawyer there because it will raise the funding and it will cost schools. And they said let the schools provide a lawyer. The schools do not need a lawyer. But they do, and what happened is they got around it when we established that rule that a parent would go to school, the trial lawyers would still be paid, and it would cost the additional money. I think the Democrats have really got their gall. For 20 years IDEA was supposed to be funded at 40 percent. The most it was ever funded was 5 percent of that 40 percent. When the Democrats had the White House, the House, and the Senate, they gave us the highest tax increase in history. They increased spending with a deficit at $330 billion forever; but, no, they did not increase the spending on IDEA. It stayed at 5 percent.”