Date: 1999-05-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of both of these resolutions. Unfortunately. I was detained and was not able to come over and speak on behalf of the full funding for IDEA. But first let me say. on the Pell Grants. I strongly support increasing the Pell Grant program. As outlined by a couple of the speakers already. clearly as the cost of college continues to accelerate. we find that we are covering a much smaller percentage of that with the existing Pell Grants than we had previously. Previously we covered about 72 percent of the average .costs. Now we are in the position of covering about 34 percent of that. As a result of that. many young students from lowincome families who have worked very hard in high school to get the grades in order to do the work required and to be accepted to college find out that economics now stand in the way .of them achieving that education. We should not allow that to happen. because we obviously have an economy that needs the contributions of all of these young people to our economic system. For that reason. I join the bipartisan support for the increase in the Pell Grant. I am concerned. as the gentleman from California pointed out. exactly the meaning of those words at the end of the legislation. because we know that there is a great deal of concern that this would take precedence over the class size reduction money. since that in fact is not an authorized program and needs authorization. And if it were to take place after the passage of this resolution. would that knock it out of the box? We know that class size reduction. as we just found out last week with the Tennessee study. is starting to have some important positive impacts on young people. when coupled with qualified teachers. So I think the concern is quite proper that the gentleman from California has raised about that. But since I think we will get a second shot at that in our authorizations. I am prepared to support the full funding. On the question of the IDEA funding. I am deeply concerned about the suggestion that to be for full funding of education for individuals with disabilities. that therefore somehow we have to cut other worthy programs in the education field. because we know that it sets tip a false choice between programs like Head Start or America Reads. all of which work to help kids become schoolready. to help them become ready to read and to participate in schools. While fully supporting the idea of full funding for IDEA. I wish that the Republicans had not tried to set it up so they could chase away Democratic sponsors of this legislation by suggesting that it has to be done by cutting these other programs. When we look at the Republican budget that cuts about $1.2 billion below a freeze compared to 1999 in the education field. if we were to fully fund this. we would be talking about a 40 percent cut below the Presidents education request to fully fund IDEA. It is interesting to note that the Committee on the Budget. when full funding of IDEA was offered. they voted in lockstep against it. and again in the Committee on Rules would not allow that amendment to be put into consideration. where we could have provided offsets or what have you within the budget resolution. So I am not sure that this resolution is exactly as it should be. but the fact is we should support the continued increase in appropriations of IDEA funds. Finally. let me say that time and again it is suggested that somehow the Federal Government is shirking its responsibility when it does not provide all of the funding for IDEA. When we passed that legislation. Republicans and Democrats said that the goal was to provide some 40 percent of the excess costs of providing education for individuals with disabilities. It continues to remain a goal.* It is a goal that we have made great advancements on in the last couple of years. We ought to continue to go after it. But it is not a question of an unfunded Federal mandate. The fact is that this is there because of the United States Constitution. If we were to repeal IDEA. every State and local education authority would still have the obligation under the Constitution of the United States to educate these children in a free and appropriate education. They could end up picking up 100 percent of the cost. The Federal Government is trying to do the best it can to help districts with the cost of these educations. but the belief somehow is that this is our duty alone. and in fact the legislation passed last year would allow. unfortunately. schools to withdraw support for IDEA if we hit a Federal threshold. so the same schools who are saying they do not have enough money find out they can in fact withdraw support for this effort. I think the intent of these resolutions is good and is proper. and both of these programs need increases in funding. The Pell Grant needs an increase in the maximum grant. But I am concerned about some of the nuances that are suggested in these resolutions.