Senator Tom Harkin will press for more federal dollars for special ed programs when a conference committee debating the education spending bill starts meeting today. Harkin says the federal government has never lived up to its promise to provide 40-percent of the cost of educating special ed students.Harkin says the feds are now providing just 15 percent of the cost of running special ed programs.Iowa State Education Association president Jolene Franken of Denison says schools are forced to cut into other budgets to cover the costs of special ed programs.Iowa Association of School Boards president Dick Vande Kieft, a member of the Cedar Falls School Board, says schools don’t get enough from the feds and the state to cover the costs of special ed.Vande Kieft says districts have to levy more local property taxes to make up the difference.
Iowa's Radio News Network
