The IDEA Act - Miller comes through - Price, Shuler, and Watt, not so much.

Several years ago the IDEA Act was reauthorized by the House and Senate and signed into law. It's goals were laudable:

America's schools educate over 6 million children with disabilities. In the past, those students were too often just shuffled through the system with little expectation that they could make significant progress or succeed like their fellow classmates. Children with disabilities deserve high hopes, high expectations, and extra help.

In the bill I sign today, we're raising expectations for the students. We're giving schools and parents the tools they need to meet them...this law ensures that students with disabilities will have special education teachers with the skills and training to teach special education and their subject area.

Some students with disabilities will need intensive, individualized help. So this law, for the first time, will support tutoring programs to help children in schools that need improvement....

We'll make sure that parents and schools can change a student's educational program to better meet their needs, without having to attend unnecessary meetings or complete unnecessary paperwork. We trust the local folks to meet high standards for all our kids, and this bill gives them the freedom and flexibility to meet our goals.

All students in America can learn. That's what all of us up here believe. All of us understand we have an obligation to make sure no child is left behind in America. So I'm honored to sign the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and once again thank the members for being here.
- George Bush

However, as with all things George Bush says, you can only believe about half of it. Or, in this case, about 17%.

Funding for IDEA Part B State Grants under the FY 2008 budget would be cut by $291 million below the FY 2007 level and $363 million or 3.6 percent below the FY 2007 level adjusted for inflation. The President has consistently underfunded IDEA programs, with FY 2007 requested levels providing only $10.7 billion, providing just 17 percent of the national average per-pupil expenditure toward meeting the excess costs of educating students with disabilities less than half of the 40 percent full funding level that Congress committed to paying when the IDEA was first adopted 31 years ago. This is down from 18 percent in FY 2006 and 19 percent in FY 2005.

Under Bush, the percent funding has dropped each year.

But, Democrats will not be denied any longer.

H.R. 526: Full Funding for IDEA Now Act The purpose of this Act is to attain the Federal Government's goal under part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1411 et seq.) of providing 40 percent of the national current average per pupil expenditure to assist States and local educational agencies with the excess costs of educating children with disabilities and to make such funding mandatory.

Our own Brad Miller stated here on BlueNC that he would support this bill, and he has lived up to his word. Cosponsors include Butterfield, Etheridge, McIntyre, and Miller. Our thanks to them and theirs.

Bricks, bats, and boos to Congressmen Price, Shuler, and Watt. Congressman Shuler MIGHT be excused for his negligence, since this is his first chance adn he has probably been overwhelmed. But, not so for Watt and Price, especially Price whose office was contacted numerous times about this bill.

What's a couple thousand more children passing through the system without the care they need though, right? At least we're not as bad as this third-world country.

Several former district teachers declined to comment for this story for fear of retaliation, but one, who asked not to be named, said she resigned not because of burnout but out of despair. She now works in another public school. Unlike Debbie Hill's classroom, which is inside Ephesus, for several years this teacher taught significantly handicapped children in detached classrooms that had no bathrooms, sinks or running water. The children often had accidents in class; they couldn't wash their hands, an important skill in learning to care for themselves. "I had a child with seizure disorder and who was paralyzed on one side and we had to go out of the trailer to the bathroom," she said. "The computers had nicer rooms than we did."

Oops, forgot, that's Chapel Hill.