[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 73 (Thursday, May 24, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S5613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-72. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the 
     Legislature of the State of Hawaii relative to appropriated 
     funds for children with disabilities; to the Committee on 
     Appropriations.

                        Senate Resolution No. 47

       Whereas, under Title 20, section 1411(a) of the United 
     States Code, the maximum amount of federal funds that a state 
     may receive for special education and related services is the 
     number of children with disabilities in the State who are 
     receiving special education and related services multiplied 
     by forty percent of the average per-pupil expenditure in 
     public elementary and secondary schools in the United States; 
     and
       Whereas, since the enactment of the Education for All 
     Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and its subsequent 
     amendments, including the Individuals with Disabilities 
     Education Act of 1990, Congress has appropriated funds for a 
     maximum of ten per cent of special education and related 
     services for children with disabilities when federal law 
     authorizes the appropriation of up to forty per cent; and
       Whereas, the Hawaii Department of Education received 
     approximately $23,500,000 in federal funds during fiscal year 
     1999-2000 for what was then referred to as ``education of the 
     handicapped''. If this figure represented an appropriation of 
     funds for ten per cent of special education and related 
     services for children with disabilities, then an 
     appropriation of forty per cent would have equaled 
     $94,000,000; and
       Whereas, the difference between an appropriation of forty 
     per cent and an appropriation of ten per cent for ``education 
     of the handicapped'' would amount to $70,500,000 just for the 
     Department of Education. If the number of students receiving 
     special education and related services equaled 22,000 during 
     the fiscal year 1999-2000, then the difference would have 
     amounted to approximately $3,200 per student; and
       Whereas, the State of Hawaii, through the Felix consent 
     decree, is being compelled by the federal district court to 
     make up for more than twenty years of insufficient funding 
     for special education and related services-funding that 
     should have been borne substantially by Congress, which 
     enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 
     1975 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 
     1990; and
       Whereas, if Congress is going to mandate new programs or 
     increase the level of service under existing programs for 
     children with disabilities, and if it is going to give the 
     federal courts unfettered power to enforce these mandates 
     through the imposition of fines and the appointment of 
     masters, then Congress should provide sufficient funding for 
     special education and related services; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate of the Twenty-first Legislature of 
     the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, That the United 
     States Congress is requested to appropriate funds for forty 
     per cent of special education and related services for 
     children with disabilities; and be it further
       Resolved, That certified copies of this Resolution be 
     transmitted to the Speaker of the United States House of 
     Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United 
     States Senate, the Vice-President of the United States, and 
     the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

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