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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2002

News Release

Educators to Congress:

Refocus IDEA on Better Services for Kids

Washington, DC - As Congress begins the debate about reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the nation's largest professional education organization is urging policymakers to focus on improving services for special needs kids and keep the promise to provide necessary resources to those students.

Hearings in the Senate and House this week addressed the report of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education. The report contains several recommendations that the 2.7 million members of the NEA support and encourage, said National Education Association (NEA) President Bob Chase.

"We applaud the Commission's recommendations to provide teachers relief from overwhelming paperwork and large class sizes so they can focus on what they do best -- helping kids learn," Chase said. "We are also pleased the Commission addressed the severe shortage of special education teachers and the need to recruit and retain the brightest people to serve our nation's kids."

"But we are disappointed that the Commission walked away from recommending full funding for IDEA and instead recommended federal funding for vouchers. Vouchers to private and religious schools -- schools that likely won't accept special needs kids -- is a false promise," Chase said. He cited evidence of the many problems with the experimental voucher program in Florida for special needs children, where it was discovered public schools are better equipped and offer a wider array of services for special needs kids.

The recommendation to provide vouchers to these ill-equipped private schools was in direct conflict with the statistics in a new report released by the bipartisan think tank Public Agenda today. This report was based on a survey, which polled parents of special needs children and found that the large majority of parents believed that current special education programs and teachers are doing a good job.

"We know that parents of special needs kids support public schools. These parents also know their children's teachers care about their kids," Chase said. "Fully funding these successful programs and recruiting and retaining high quality teachers in the classroom is the best course of action for this Congress to take. To drain badly needed funds from an already underfunded federal law through the false promise of vouchers is irresponsible."

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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.