David Obey: “There are two problems I have with this amendment. First of all, it seeks to cut $10 million from an item in the bill…”

“There are two problems I have with this amendment. First of all, it seeks to cut $10 million from an item in the bill which is meant to establish full-service community schools. These are supposed to be schools which test the concept of making schools neighborhood centers which include early childhood education, remedial education, academic enrichment activities, programs that promote parental involvement and family literacy, mentoring and other youth development programs. It's meant to be a much more holistic educational experience than is usually found in an individual school. We believe that that deserves an opportunity to be tested. Secondly, I would simply say that, lest this amendment be portrayed as an amendment that does anything significant for special education, I want to point out that this is an especially marginal amendment. The damage it does to the neighborhood school concept that we are trying to explore in the bill is far larger than the negligible impact that it has on the special education program. What I mean by that is this: Special education is an $11 billion program. This amendment adds $10 million to it. It is another one of those symbolic amendments which I think ought to be placed in context. The committee has already increased this account by $500 million.”