T. Gorton: “the rejection of the last motion to waive, I think, was a wise action on the part of the Senate. I am here primarily to…”

“the rejection of the last motion to waive, I think, was a wise action on the part of the Senate. I am here primarily to congratulate the Senator from Pennsylvania for the way in which he has dealt with the challenge of education in this bill. More than $40 billion for education is a very substantial increase over the current year. That is more than a $1 billion increase in special education programs, at least moving us one step further toward the promise of 40- percent funding of the cost of special education to the school districts of the United States. In my view, the centerpiece of this bill is in its expression of trust and confidence in our local school authorities, our parents, our teachers, our principals, our superintendents, our elected school board members, a trust and confidence expressed in a more than $3 billion appropriation for title VI, the innovative education program strategies. The last amendment would have taken roughly half of that amount of money and mandated that it go solely for additional teachers in the first three grades. Title VI, as it appears in this bill, says in effect our school districts--the men and women who know our children's names--are better suited to make the decisions in 17,000 separate school districts about what can most improve the quality of education for their children.”