Feds wrestle with Whatever funds Congress authorizes this year for special education will not come in time to save the state from possible federal control in the Felix consent decree, U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink said.
funding of special ed
Rep. Mink says money will not
arrive in time, so the state
should focus on teachersFrom staff and news reports
"It's not going to make a difference," Mink said yesterday.
What the state needs to do, she said, is to fund more incentives to bring teachers into the classroom and to settle the current contract dispute with the teachers union.
"That sort of makes a morale problem," she said.
Mink is one of the House and Senate lawmakers negotiating the details of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides most of the federal money for K-12 education. The House and Senate approved separate versions last spring, and hope to give President Bush a compromise version this fall.
The Senate version includes an amendment, proposed by Democrats and backed by several Republicans, that mandates $8.8 billion next year for special-education programs -- $2.5 billion more than this year. The House version does not address the issue, but the House budget includes $1 billion more for special education in fiscal 2002 -- the same amount Bush requested.
Under the terms of the Senate bill, the federal government would give schools an additional $2.5 billion each year until 2007, when funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would reach just more than $21 billion.
Hawaii lawmakers, battered by the high costs associated with the 1994 federal court consent decree requiring improved services for emotionally troubled children, have complained that the federal government has provided too little funding for the services it mandates under the act.
The cost of special education in Hawaii is expected to be about $213 million in the 2001-2002 school year.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra said Thursday he would order a federal control of the state's special-education system if two-thirds of school complexes are not in compliance with the consent decree and the state has not met key benchmarks.
Schools across the country have long complained that the federal government requires them to educate children with disabilities but does not give them enough money for expensive evaluations, equipment and services.
IDEA, enacted in 1975, called for Washington to provide 40 percent of funding for disabled youngsters' education. This year, the federal government provided about 15 percent, or $6.3 billion.
But Mink said the belief that Congress is required to provide 40 percent of funding is mistaken.
"There is this misunderstanding," Mink said. "There was never a commitment or promise of the 40 percent of expenditures."
She received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education that said the 40 percent is a maximum funding level, and there was no formal commitment from Congress for the full amount.
"There was a hope and expectation that Congress would come up with the cost of this program," Mink said.
The Hawaii congressional delegation has voted for full funding in the current debate, she added.
But even if Hawaii were to receive maximum funding, the state would receive at the most an estimated $65 million, and the bulk of the costs would still fall on the state, she said.
"The state has to come up with 60 percent," she said.
States and school districts share a much larger burden. While accurate government figures are not available, the California-based Center for Special Education Finance estimates that they spend $50 billion to $60 billion annually on all special-education programs.
About 6 million children, including about 23,000 in Hawaii, receive special-education funding, which pays for school instruction and help for everything from dyslexia to paralysis to blindness. The money also pays for the voluminous paperwork required to keep track of children's progress.
The state has to create and pay for incentives to draw more special-education teachers, Mink said. She also said the sooner the state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association settle the teachers contract, the better it will be for special education.
Congress is expected to wrap up negotiations on the measure in November.
"Just in time for Judge Ezra's decision," she said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Crystal Kua and the Associated Press contributed to this report.