Yesterday was the national call-in on the Sessions/Norwood admendments to ESEA as well as full funding. Today the response:
Below please find a letter from U.S. Department of Education
Secretary Rod Paige regarding the IDEA. The letter is written
to the Chairman of the Congressional Conference Committee
reviewing H.R. 1, the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” and
the “Better Education for Students and Teachers Act of 2001.”
It is a thoughtful consideration of special education issues
that merits careful review by people with disabilities. The
principal objective of the letter is to urge Congress “to
delay consideration on all IDEA-related amendments until we
have had a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the Act.”
This is good news for the disability community regarding the
discipline amendments. The Senate has attached negative
discipline amendments to its version of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Administration now
urges they be removed. On the other hand, the
Administration’s position on another amendment raises
questions about its commitment to funding IDEA. “The
Administration strongly opposes the Senate bill’s full-funding
amendment,” writes Paige, “because it would remove the IDEA
from the appropriations process and substantially increase
Federal funding without improving educational results for
children with disabilities.” Paige urges that a process
separate from ESEA be pursued to consider all IDEA-related
issues, namely in preparation for the reauthorization of IDEA.
The complete text of Paige’s letter follows, preceded by an
introduction from Jennifer Sheehy of the White House Domestic
Policy Council.
======================
Dear colleagues,
I am forwarding to you a letter that Secretary of Education
Rod Paige sent today to Rep. John A. Boehner, Chairman of the
Conference Committee on H.R. 1, the “No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001” and the “Better Education for Students in Teachers
Act of 2001.” The letter requests that the conferees delete
the Senate amendment that would remove the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) from the annual
appropriations process.
Please read the letter carefully. The President and Secretary
appreciate the very complex issues involved in special
education such as discipline, overrepresentation of minority
students and finance models and urge Congress to
delay consideration of all IDEA-related amendments until a
thorough review of IDEA can be done in preparation for IDEA
reauthorization, and not as part of the ESEA reauthorization.
Thank you for your attention.
With warm regards,
Jennifer Sheehy
Domestic Policy Council
The White House
==========================
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20202
August 13, 2001
Honorable John A. Boehner
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I am writing to urge the conferees on H.R. 1, the “No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001” and the “Better Education for
Students and Teachers Act of 2001,” to delete the Senate
amendment that would remove the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) from the annual appropriations process.
I am sending this letter separately from the Administration’s
views on a range of issues in these bills so I can more
thoroughly articulate our position on this very important
issue. The IDEA reauthorization will be a top priority of
this Administration, and we have already begun to prepare for
this process. While I look forward to working with Congress
on this reauthorization, the ESEA bill is not the appropriate
vehicle for enacting changes to the IDEA.
I would like to commend you once again for your efforts to
enact President Bush’s No Child Left Behind proposal. As you
know, when the President speaks of leaving no child behind,
his commitment includes all students, including those with
disabilities. The passage of the Education for All
Handicapped Children Act (now the IDEA) nearly 26 years ago
has helped millions of students with disabilities achieve high
academic standards and participate fully in American society.
Yet, notwithstanding this progress, there are still
significant gaps between children with disabilities and their
peers on such key indicators as graduation and student
achievement.
The Administration recognizes the many challenges faced by
States and localities in carrying out their responsibility to
educate children with disabilities. While IDEA funding has
nearly tripled over the last five years, we recognize the
importance of providing additional funding. That is why the
President’s Budget includes a $1 billion increase for the IDEA
for fiscal year 2002, the largest increase ever proposed by a
President in his budget. However, the Administration strongly
opposes the Senate bill’s full-funding amendment because it
would remove the IDEA from the appropriations process and
substantially increase Federal funding without improving
educational results for children with disabilities. Like
other critical education priorities, IDEA funding should
remain subject to the annual appropriations process, where
Congress has discretion to scrutinize federal spending and
determine how best to allocate limited resources.
Special education is filled with complex issues and problems,
including discipline, finance models, and possible over-
identification and disproportionate placement of minority
students. We believe that solutions to these challenges
should be addressed within the context of a thorough review of
the IDEA and as part of a comprehensive package of reforms,
not as part of the ESEA reauthorization.
As our experience with the ESEA over the past three decades
has proven, additional funding alone will not improve student
performance. We need to take a hard look at what works in
special education to ensure that children with disabilities
have the opportunity to reach high academic standards.
In the case of discipline, the President and I strongly
believe that all students deserve to be educated in safe
schools free from violence and drugs. While the
Administration understands the goals behind the House and
Senate amendments, we also recognize that IDEA discipline
policy is a very complex and controversial issue. As such, it
deserves a careful and thorough review during the IDEA
reauthorization.
In addition, as a practitioner, I am aware of various problems
with the implementation of the IDEA. In particular, I am very
disturbed with the recent findings that, in many districts,
minority students are over-represented in special education
classes. While the reports find that there are many different
reasons for this, it is clear that we need to look more
closely at this issue.
For example, we need to look at how to distribute Federal
special education funds without creating inappropriate
incentives regarding the referral, placement, or provision of
services to children. I am pleased that both the House and
Senate have adopted the President’s Reading First proposal,
which was intended, in part, to ensure that children are not
unnecessarily referred to special education because of
inadequate reading instruction. The Senate’s full-funding
amendment could create a fiscal incentive to refer children to
special education at the same time that we are working hard to
minimize inappropriate referrals.
While this letter only touches on some of the issues in
special education, I urge you to delay consideration on all
IDEA-related amendments until we have had a comprehensive,
evidence-based review of the Act. Please be assured that the
Administration has already begun to prepare for the IDEA
reauthorization. I look forward to working with you to
address these critically important issues.
Thank you for your commitment to achieving excellence in
education through the reauthorization of the ESEA.
The Office of Management and Budget advises that there is no
objection to the submission of this report from the standpoint
of the Administration’s program.
Sincerely,
Rod Paige
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