[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8342]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              IDEA FUNDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, today the House passed House Concurrent 
Resolution 84, which I think is important for a number of reasons. 
There is no higher priority, I believe, than our children's education.
  I have a third grader and a fifth grader who attend Oscar Howell 
Elementary, the public school system in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 
the Sioux Falls School District. The school board election is coming up 
in June. There are no fewer than 12 people running for one position on 
the school board, and we will have the opportunity to choose a very 
qualified member of the school board. I am delighted to have that many 
people who are interested in seeking and holding that very important 
position.
  The concurrent resolution that we passed today in the House was a 
nonbinding resolution. But, nevertheless, I think is important, for 
several reasons. It compels the will of this House that special 
education be funded before any other new education initiatives are 
funded. That makes basic sense. The special education mandate, IDEA 
funding, is a Federal mandate and, therefore, should be federally 
funded.
  Twenty years ago the Congress committed to fund special ed at 40 
percent of the total funding level. We are not even close to that 
today, not even close. I am pleased that the Republican Congress in the 
last years has begun moving in that direction. In fact, we have backed 
up our rhetoric with our action.
  If we look at where the President's budget has been in the last 
several budget years, in fiscal year 1997 the Republican Congress upped 
the President's request for IDEA funding for special ed by 19 percent. 
In 1998 we increased the funding level for special ed by 17 percent 
over the President's request. And in 1999 the Congress increased the 
level of spending over the President's request by 13 percent.
  There is a pattern and a history and a commitment on the part of this 
Congress to see that the Federal Government honors the commitment that 
it has made to local school district across this country. So it is very 
important, I think, that this resolution expresses the will of the 
House that we will fully fund special ed and move in that direction.
  The other thing I think is important with respect to this resolution 
is that whenever the Federal Government imposes mandates on local 
school districts and school boards, we take away and deprive them of 
critical decision-making authority.
  I just mentioned that we have 12 people seeking the school board 
position for one position in the Sioux Falls School District. Using the 
resources that they have to fund the special ed mandate deprives them 
of using resources that could be allocated for other important things 
like building new schools, hiring new teachers, reducing class sizes, 
or buying more computers.
  I will use my State of South Dakota as an example. If we were fully 
funding the mandate on special education today, we would be looking at 
an additional $18 million coming into South Dakota. And if each State 
would look at their own statistics, I think they would find similar 
types of relationships between the current funding levels and where it 
should be if the Federal Government was living up to the mandate.
  As I said earlier, there is no higher priority than providing quality 
education to children with disabilities and at the same time freeing up 
resources that local decision-makers can use to improve the quality of 
education for all of our students across this country.
  And so I believe that the vote that we made today in the House is 
important, as we move down that direction and look at what we can do to 
further increase the funding level, to honor the commitment that the 
Federal Government has made to the local school boards across this 
country, to see that those Federal mandates that we impose upon local 
school boards are fully funded so that our school districts and those 
decision-makers at the local level have an opportunity to do what they 
do best, and that is try and give our children the very best education 
possible.
  And I again would simply say that, as a matter of principle, I 
believe that this Republican Congress is committed to seeing that more 
of that decision-making authority is retained at the local level and 
that our parents, our teachers, our administrators and our school 
boards are those who are in the best position to make decisions about 
the quality and the funding of our children's education. And that 
frankly, in my view, is where we ought to put the point of control.
  And so the resolution that we acted upon today, I think, speaks loud 
and clear that this Congress will continue to move in the direction of 
seeing that the Federal mandate special education, which we have a 
responsibility for 40 percent of, that we continue to move in the 
direction, as we have here in the past few years in this Congress, to 
see that we honor that commitment to all of our students across this 
country and particularly to those who have disabilities.
  I look forward to working toward that end and as we go through the 
appropriations process within the confines of a balanced budget 
agreement to see that that gets done.

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