A group of educators and parents recently returned from Washington, D.C., where they had more than 30 meetings with members of Congress and their staffs to lobby for special education funding and related issues. The group consisted of representatives from ACSA and the Coalition for Adequate Funding for Special Education.
The group targeted legislative members who sit on the Education and Appropriations committees of both houses of Congress. Currently, legislation exists in both the Senate and House of Representatives that would offer more funding to education than President Bush has proposed. The House budget resolution calls for $7.9 billion above Bush’s proposal, while the Senate calls for $6.1 billion in additional discretionary funds for schools.
Gayle Olson, president of ACSA’s Pupil Services and Special Education Council, took part in the delegation and said she believes they achieved their purpose.
“I think it was an important exercise in educating our legislators,” Olson said. “It was also a lesson for us, in that passing laws is one thing, but appropriations is another. We have this two-headed creation with the fiscal side of the house and the legislative side of the house, but they don’t always act together.”
Olson said that although the coalition’s focus was to get a commitment to live up to the original federal commitment to provide 40 percent of the costs associated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1976, other issues were also on the agenda, including Medicaid reimbursement, the rising costs of some services such as for autism, Response to Intervention, burdensome new data collection requirements, and NCLB-related issues such as highly qualified teachers and testing of students with IEPs.
“But our number one priority was full funding of IDEA,” Olson said.
To that end, the coalition advocated for passage of two Congressional bills wending their way through the Capitol, S 1159 and HR 821. Both would make full funding of IDEA mandatory.
Olson said that although the group got to meet with Rep. Joe Baca, shake hands with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and hear briefly from Sen. Barbara Boxer, most of the meetings took place with staffers. However, that’s not necessarily a negative.
“If you can meet with a staffer who’s knowledgeable on education issues and has the representative’s trust, and you can accomplish your goals, to me, that’s just as good as meeting with the actual legislator. Meeting our goals, that’s what’s important to us,” Olson said.
And Nancy LaCasse, associate vice president of School Services of California, who was part of the group, said she thinks the group made headway on achieving its goals.
“Based on our meetings with key staff and members, I believe we have a good shot at receiving a meaningful increase in IDEA funding this year,” LaCasse said. “However, we must keep up the pressure and encourage our administrators, teachers and parents to contact their local members of Congress to let them know the importance of increased special education funding.”
The coalition refused to be deterred when any feedback was not 100 percent positive.
“Some representatives told us money’s tight; we have a war to fund,” Olson said. “But our position was that every year we go back we’re told that money’s tight, so there’s no time like the present to start. We’ve been waiting for 32 years and it’s time.
“We were a good team. Everyone had their voice and no matter which representative we met with we were very unified, very coherent, and very consistent in our message.”
Besides Olson, ACSA members in the group included Carol Bartz, senior director, North Inland SELPA; Carl Cohn, superintendent, San Diego City SD; Sandee Kludt, assistant superintendent, San Joaquin COE SELPA; Steve Minjarez, assistant superintendent, Goleta USD; Dede Moga, director of special education, Chaffey Joint Union HSD; Pamela Ptacek, SELPA director, Santa Clara County; Peter Schiff, superintendent, Ramona SD; Barbara Wilson, superintendent, Jefferson ESD; and Dennis Meyers, ACSA consultant.
On May 17, Congress approved a resolution calling for a $9.5 billion increase in education and workforce programs. This is a non-binding document. Congress is planning to conclude action on education funding by June.