[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21269]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RURAL EDUCATION INITIATIVE

  (Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, over 20 percent of the students 
in this country attend small rural schools. Many of these schools are 
in my Nebraska district. These schools offer students excellent 
educations and many benefits including small classes, excellent 
educations, personal attention, strong family and community 
involvement. However, until now federal education programs have not 
addressed the unique funding needs in these districts. All current 
federal education formula grants unintentionally ignore small rural 
schools because these formulas do not produce enough revenue to carry 
out the program the grant is intended to fund.
  To address this problem I have introduced a bill, the Small Rural 
Schools initiative to provide flexibility for districts with fewer than 
600 students to combine funds from federal education formula grants to 
support local education efforts. The Small Rural Schools initiative is 
a common sense approach to help these schools to use federal funds for 
the purpose that Congress intended, to make a meaningful impact in the 
education of all students.

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