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WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) today reintroduced bipartisan legislation to meet the federal government's commitment to fund 40 percent of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Congress approved IDEA in 1975, requiring states to provide an appropriate education for students with special needs. As a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funding for the IDEA grants to states was increased to $22.8 billion this year, or 34 percent. However, the Recovery Act is a one-time investment designed to address a crisis caused by the recession, and without it IDEA grants are currently funded at around 17 percent of the cost of special education programs. Prior to this year, federal funding has never exceeded 18 percent. This leaves state governments and local school districts to pick up the tab, many times at the expense of other necessary programs like remedial classes, after-school tutoring and summer school.
"We tell our children all the time to keep their promises, to live up to their commitments, to do as they say they are going to do," Harkin said. "It is time for the Federal Government to make good on its promise to students with disabilities in this country."
“Congress made a promise to our schools and our children to share the cost of special education,” Roberts said. “It’s time that Congress relieve our state and local governments of the financial burden they have been forced to shoulder, especially in these tough economic times.”
The IDEA Full Funding Act authorizes increasing amounts of mandatory funding in six year increments that, in addition to the discretionary funding allocated through the Appropriations Committee, will finally meet the federal government’s commitment to educating children with special needs. These new resources will ensure that all children with disabilities receive a free, appropriate public education. By increasing the federal investment in special education, the bill would also free up local and state funds that had previously been used to meet IDEA requirements. This will allow districts in compliance new resources for other important education priorities such as teacher salaries, school construction and technology improvements. Therefore, as the federal IDEA share grows, local school districts will have increased flexibility for all their education programs.
"This is a win-win-win bill," Harkin said. "With these advance appropriations, students with disabilities will get the public education they have a right to and school districts will be able to provide services without cutting into their general education budgets."
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