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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2001

News Release

House and Senate on Track to Aid Schools

"Public education will play a pivotal role in strengthening our nation"

Washington, D.C.- The nation's teachers gave high praise to both the House and the Senate for boosting education funding by large bipartisan margins. "Public education will play a pivotal role in strengthening our nation and raising citizens prepared to meet the challenges we face," said NEA President Bob Chase. "Knowledge is the strongest weapon against fear and uncertainty. Bipartisan action to increase investment in education is a responsible, common sense response to current adversities." Both the House and Senate provide more than $4 billion above the Administration's original budget.

Chase urged education appropriations bill conferees to solidify the education increases in the House and Senate appropriations in the overall education bill. Conferees can demonstrate strong support for public schools by including the House-passed funding levels for Title I, bilingual education, comprehensive school reform, teacher quality, and rural education and the Senate-passed funding levels for urgent school repairs, early childhood educator professional development, and school libraries.

Chase lauded the growing bipartisan support for mandatory full funding for special education, which is gathering momentum across all levels of government and community. The nation's governors, school boards, school administrators, and PTA's all strongly support full-funding for special education. NEA urged education bill conferees to adopt the Senate-passed Harkin-Hagel amendment that would make full-funding for special education mandatory. The amendment provides a $2.5 billion increase in IDEA this year, and would also free up at least $1 billion in the education appropriations bill that can be used for other important investments in education. This is particularly important since the economic downturn is seriously eroding state and local governmental budgets.

As appropriators complete work on the economic stimulus package tomorrow, Chase urged Congress to include additional funds for urgent school repair and construction. For every $1 billion spent in school construction, more than 23,000 jobs are created. "We hope the President and members of Congress recognize that all paths to national health and vitality begin with public education," said Chase.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.