This year, the nation will mark the 25th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandated special education in public schools. This federal law has made it possible for many children with disabilities to receive an education, enter the workforce, and lead fuller and more productive lives. But the high cost of educating children with disabilities and the federal government's failure to fully meet its obligation under IDEA stretches limited state and local education funds, making it difficult to provide a quality education to all students, including children with disabilities.

I have been working to ease the financial burden IDEA has placed on states and local schools districts by increasing federal funding for special education. In 1975, when Congress passed IDEA, the federal government promised to pay for 40% of the cost of the program. The federal government currently pays nearly 13%. I am pleased that the Fiscal Year 2001 House Budget Resolution, which recently passed the House, provides for the largest federal increase ever for special education, which would bring federal funding up to 18%.

Since I entered Congress in 1995, federal funding for special education has been increased by more than $2.689 billion. This year, I worked as a member of the House Budget committee to nearly double that increase by providing for an additional $2 billion in funding for special education in the Fiscal Year 2001 House Budget Resolution. This spending blueprint would also make full federal funding for special education Congress's highest elementary and secondary education priority. Furthermore, it would encourage Congress and the President to consider giving flexibility for local authorities to use any new or increased federal education funding for IDEA.

Every community in New Hampshire would benefit if the federal government honored its funding obligation under IDEA. This year, the federal government will provide the state with $21.7 million. Under my budget provision, New Hampshire could receive $30.3 million from the federal government for special education - an increase of more than $8 million. If the federal government were to fully fund its obligation under IDEA, however, the state would receive a total of $64 million annually to be distributed among the state's 69 School Administrative Units.

The Clinton Administration's budget for fiscal year 2001 includes the only sizeable increase the President has ever proposed for special education, but it is woefully inadequate. The President called for only a $332.6 million increase in IDEA funding, and yet he included 20 new federal education programs in his budget - adding to the more than 760 programs we already have. Before creating new federal obligations, we need to fulfill the promise we have already made to help local communities educate children with disabilities.

In my opinion, there is no issue that is more important to local school districts, to school administrators, to school boards, to parents, and, perhaps most importantly, to taxpayers than the federal government's chronic under funding of special education. If the federal government were to provide more special education funding to local school districts, they would be able to free up resources to address their unique problems and needs.

Increasing the funding of special education addresses one of the largest unfunded federal mandates and returns decision making on education spending priorities to local schools. We write 100% of the rules for special education here in Washington, but, sadly, we fund only a small fraction of the cost of the program. I believe it is incumbent upon the federal government to properly fund this federal mandate and I will continue to work for full federal funding for IDEA.