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Date: 06 Dec 2001
Time: 04:21:46
Remote Name: 63.17.150.40
Remote User: dadredd
Please distribute this widely. The disability community needs to be aware Chairperson's Branstad's attitude towards special education.
The President needs to hear your concerns about this commission and its leadership.
President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 202-456-1414 Fax: 202-456-2461 E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
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Subject: Quote from Chair of President Bush's Commission on Special Education
Gov. Branstad (former governor of Iowa) has been appointed to serve as chair of the Administration's new special education commission.
Following is a quote from Gov Branstad (Iowa) from an interview transcript. The entire transcript is available at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/schools_1-16.html
GOV. TERRY BRANSTAD: In our state nearly 60 percent of the budget goes for education. And what we find is people are willing to invest in quality education, but they are also fiscally conservative. They want to see results. They want to see achievement for the dollars that they put in. I think that the federal government in its mandates in the area of special ed has driven up costs needlessly. I think that needs to be reviewed.
I want to see every child have an opportunity to learn. All specialed children do have a right to an education, but to spend tens of thousands of dollars on kids that really are not going to be able to support themselves or be able to really learn a great deal at the expense of the general education of the rest of the students is not fair.
And so that has to be addressed. A lot of people are afraid of it, of being, you know, accused of being insensitive or whatever. I was in Sioux City, Iowa, yesterday, and I heard from a Teacher of the Year, Nancy Mounts, who had been Teacher of the Year, and the superintendent there about how their school is being squeezed because of the federal mandates in the area of special ed and how there needs to be more flexibility and latitude given to