Call to action!

By Heather Perkins
Youth Education Advocate

This call goes out to everyone! If you are a parent, sibling, aunt, grandparent, friend or neighbor of someone with a disability or if you have a disability, this is for you. Every year the federal government plans where to spend our money. They look to us to guide them but if we don’t speak up, they wont hear us. You can’t wait for someone else to do something - you must do it yourself!
The education of our future is up to us. On Monday, February 2nd the President issued his FY ’05 Budget Proposal. President Bush has indicated that he intends to increase the amount appropriated for IDEA Part B by $1 billion. Despite this increase, the federal funding contribution will continue to fall short of the full congressional commitment to provide 40% of each state’s “excess cost” of educating children with disabilities. That amount – commonly referred to as the “IDEA full funding” amount – is calculated by taking 40% of the national average per pupil expenditure (APPE) multiplied by the number of children with disabilities served under IDEA in each state. Congress has made significant progress in recent years, but with the proposed increase, it is still only funding IDEA at 19 percent of the promised 40 percent. 
I have worked with many parents and heard from them that the school will not provide a service that their child needs because they do not have the funding. I have advocated for parents to receive these services but feel as though I must also advocate for the schools to receive the funding they need to be able to provide all children with an appropriate education. I am asking you to help!
Please take the time now to send letters to President Bush and Secretary Paige. Mail them at: The Honorable Roderick Paige, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202 or President George W. Bush, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20500.