[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7514]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   ROLE OF THE RURAL EDUCATION CAUCUS

  (Mr. REHBERG asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, schools in rural districts face a barrage 
of problems unheard of in more populous areas. Country schools have 
continually had to confront the one-size-fits-all mentality of 
Washington, DC, when it comes to Federal education policy. For rural 
States like Montana, the sun always seems to set on the Potomac, where 
policymakers seem to ignore the rest of the map stretching 3,000 miles 
beyond that river.
  In my home State, our schools fight year after year to come up with 
enough funding to cover the federally mandated Individuals With 
Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. In just 5 years, the estimated 
Federal shortfall in IDEA funding has cost my State nearly $93 million, 
money that larger and wealthier school districts in more populous 
States can easily afford; but in Montana it is real money that comes 
out of funds for new teachers, computers, books and Internet access.
  Our families in western and rural States deserve the same access to 
quality education for their children that urban families have. That is 
why I, along with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), and the gentleman from Minnesota 
(Mr. Peterson), have formed the bipartisan Rural Education Caucus. 
Together we have come together to devise solutions to the unique 
problems associated with the business of educating children in rural 
areas.

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