[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23721-23723]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the current conference on 
the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 
known as the ESEA. In particular, I bring to the attention of my 
colleagues the fact that last Friday the conference rejected the 
Senate's unanimous support for full funding of the Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. I am deeply disappointed the 
conference would reject this very important legislation that has 
received unanimous support in the Senate.
  IDEA has been an extraordinarily important legislative vehicle for 
students with disabilities throughout this country. Only 15 percent of 
students with disabilities were receiving any serious education prior 
to the enactment of IDEA in the mid-seventies. Today a free, excellent 
public education is the rule of law for all children in America, 
including those with disabilities.
  Today, IDEA serves approximately 6 million children, the majority of 
whom are taught in regular classrooms in their neighborhoods. They are 
with their classmates, and they are learning. They are making 
impressive

[[Page 23722]]

progress. High school graduation rates for special needs students have 
also increased dramatically.
  In an interesting study between those students who are beneficiaries 
of IDEA and older adults who did not have this opportunity although 
they did have disabilities, those younger students with IDEA are in the 
workforce at a much higher rate. This is not simply a good thing to do 
in an altruistic sense, it is an important thing to do for our economy, 
for our workforce.
  We have made progress with IDEA. We have increased the number of 
students who are covered. We have made it a standard that all students, 
particularly those with disabilities, would have access to classrooms, 
but we have not lived up to the real promise we made back in the mid-
seventies, and that is that we would, in fact, pay 40 percent of the 
cost of this education for children with disabilities.
  Sadly, the Federal share is about 15 percent, leaving it up to the 
States to make up the difference. As we all know, this has been a 
constant source of contention between the States and the Federal 
Government. It is something we have the opportunity to correct in this 
conference, an opportunity we have not as yet seen, but it is an 
opportunity I hope in the days ahead we will be able to realize as we 
return to the conference and, once again, press for full funding of 
IDEA.
  We have been in this body and the other body over the last several 
years constantly talking about the importance of IDEA, strongly 
suggesting our unwavering support for IDEA. But those were easy votes 
because they were simply about the concept.
  The hard vote took place last Friday in the conference where we were 
actually going to put dollars to our words, to match our rhetoric with 
real resources. Unfortunately, on that real vote, the conference 
failed.
  We have an opportunity to build on what we did in the Senate several 
months ago. Senator Hagel and Senator Harkin offered an amendment that 
would fully fund IDEA and make it mandatory spending. The amendment 
would increase in yearly increments of $2.5 billion until the full 40 
percent Federal share is realized by the year 2007.
  In the process of making IDEA funding mandatory, it would free up 
anywhere between $28 billion and $52 billion in funds for discretionary 
educational programs that the Federal Government supports.
  This would be a win-win situation, clearly signaling to the States 
that they can depend upon a robust stream of IDEA funding and at the 
same time give us the opportunity to support other worthy Federal 
educational programs such as title I, such as professional 
development--all those programs that are so important.
  The President has rightly made education an important priority in his 
administration, and he has taken a very aggressive view toward tough 
accountability standards for testing, but the reality is, without 
resources, we cannot fully realize the potential of American students. 
We can test and test and test, but we do not have the resources for 
professional development, for smaller class size, for better libraries, 
for a host of programs.
  The testing will show us what we know already: There are students 
who, because of social circumstances, because of income circumstances, 
because of lack of resources in the schools, are falling behind. We 
know we can simply divide districts based upon their income, the 
affluent versus the poorest, and we will see a startling difference in 
performance of those children. We want to do better. We want to have 
tough accountability, but without resources we are not going to get the 
results.
  That, again, is why I am so disappointed we did not follow up with 
the wisdom of the Harkin-Hagel amendment and in the conference adopt 
the Senate position: full funding of IDEA, mandatory funding of IDEA. 
That could be the most fundamental education reform we could ever 
accomplish this year. Again, we missed the opportunity last Friday, but 
I hope before this conference concludes we will have another chance to 
revisit this issue and to seize this opportunity and fully fund IDEA.
  Just ask every Governor, every legislative leader, superintendents, 
principals; they will all say the same thing: The biggest thing we can 
do to help them provide good education for all students is to fully 
fund IDEA. That is what I hear when I go back to Rhode Island. I do not 
hear about more testing. I hear something about libraries and 
professional development, but what I hear consistently and constantly 
is: Please, fully fund the IDEA program; please. We are rejecting the 
pleas of those people who are in the front ranks of education, those 
people who have the most significant responsibility for education.
  Again, I think it is a mistake and a missed opportunity. This issue 
becomes very real in the lives of the children and the families who 
deal with issues of disability, and the parents who have to deal with 
this issue. It is not an academic one. It is not a budgetary issue. It 
is not an issue that is hypothetical we could debate. It is personal 
because every parent wants the best for their child. Some parents have 
to fight constantly to get what is owed their child through the special 
education program.
  In Rhode Island, I constantly meet parents and they contact me. One 
family, the Gulianos from East Greenwich, RI, wrote to me and told me 
about their struggle, which is typical of families across this country. 
From their letter:

       Time and time again, we have heard from very well meaning 
     people that there is just not enough personnel or hours 
     available to provide these kinds of services. We are told 
     that they just don't have the funding. Funding that should 
     have come from the legislation that entitles Jamie to receive 
     appropriate educational services in the first place--IDEA.

  This school system, one of the best school systems in my State, is 
not a school system that would do badly on examinations. This is not a 
school system that lacks professional development or adequate class 
size or good facilities, but when it comes to IDEA even this district, 
this affluent community, lacks the resources to fully serve all the 
children it needs to serve, and this district is a home to families who 
are themselves typically college educated and very well off, and they 
can advocate for their child. But go into a center city where families 
under more economic stress and sometimes families are with one adult 
and several children. For these families it is virtually impossible to 
advocate successfully for the programs as they do in some of the more 
affluent suburbs. There the crisis is even more severe, the stress of 
funding more severe. We can alleviate some of those problems and that 
stress if we go ahead and make IDEA mandatory and free up not only 
funds for IDEA but also for other educational programs.
  I hear the same thing from school principals who say if they get more 
IDEA funding, they can have additional teachers, enhanced technology, 
all those things that we say are important to the educational process. 
Throughout my State, superintendents and principals have consistently 
and constantly come forward to say, give us more resources for IDEA.
  I believe strongly and emphatically this is something we have to do. 
It is not an option. We cannot put it off until next year or the 
following year. If we truly want to make an impact on education in the 
United States today, fund IDEA, provide strict accountability, provide 
resources for other programs such as professional development and 
libraries, and we will have educational progress. If we do not do that, 
then I think all the testing and all the accountability and all the 
evaluation will simply tell us what we know already: Some students are 
failing; other students are doing exceptionally well.
  The other problem we face is the reality that our brave words about 
IDEA, and our brave words and authorization about what we want to do 
with respect to funding education, will shortly collide with reality. 
Last week, OMB Director Daniels announced we have locked ourselves into 
several years of deficits, and in those deficits I do not think we are 
going to see the commitment in dollars to education we are

[[Page 23723]]

hearing today in rhetoric. That is another very important reason why 
today we should make IDEA funding mandatory, and I hope we do.
  In my State of Rhode Island, our board of regents for elementary and 
secondary education has asked for a 4.4-percent increase. Frankly, the 
Governor is resisting because he has ordered every other department in 
the State to cut spending 6 percent. That is the reality of the States. 
If we want educational reform, if we want to assist and support every 
educational organization in the States, then we have to put real 
resources into the mix of educational reform.
  I argue again that our task in the next several days as we conclude 
this conference should be to, once again, bring to the conference the 
issue of IDEA, bring forth the Harkin-Hagel amendment, mandatory 
funding, a full Federal share by 2007. If we do that, we will have 
educational reform that works, that is robust, that is well funded, and 
that will make a huge difference in the lives of every student in 
America, particularly in the lives of those students with disabilities.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________