Rubén Hinojosa: “although I support this continuing resolution, I want to sound a warning to my colleagues. Last year, many of us proudly…”

“although I support this continuing resolution, I want to sound a warning to my colleagues. Last year, many of us proudly went to the White House and stood with the President as he signed the No Child Left Behind Act. That bill instituted many needed reforms and authorized additional funding to help poor and disadvantaged children. I was very disappointed when the President's Fiscal Year 2003 budget did not provide the money necessary to fulfill the promise of that historic bill. Yet today we are heading down a path that will be even more tragic. No matter how inadequate the President's budget, it at least provided some minimal increases to several critical programs. If in the next few weeks, however, we agree to a long-term continuing resolution, even those scant increases will be gone. What does this mean to our children? It means that states with sizeable Hispanic student populations like Texas, California, New York and Florida will lose almost $2 billion in funding for Title I. California, Texas, New York, Arizona, New Mexico and Illinois will lose $63 million just under the English Language Acquisition State Grants program. This program serves 950,000 limited-English proficient and immigrant children. These are the children who need the most help, yet we will be denying them access to education they deserve.”