Recognizing 30th Anniversary of Enactment of Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975
RECOGNIZING 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF ENACTMENT OF EDUCATION FOR ALL HANDICAPPED CHILDREN ACT OF 1975 -- (House of Representatives - November 15, 2005)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with Chairman Boehner, with Subcommittee Chairman CASTLE, with Mr. Miller, who is not here, and certainly with Ms. Woolsey and the ranking member, Mr. Hinojosa, in strong support of H. Con. Res. 288, which recognizes the 30th anniversary of the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and reaffirms support for individuals with disabilities education.
This program currently serves 7 million children, and without it many of those children would live in State institutions, would not have been able to complete high school and would have no possibility of enjoying the quality of life to which now they have the potential to enjoy.
I have always been led to believe that the greatness of society can be measured by how well it treats its old, how well it treats its young, and how well it treats those who have difficulty caring for themselves. I must say that I have been tremendously impressed with the progress that we have made toward the goal of assuring every handicapped child in our country optimal opportunity to experience the educational attainment and personal development that they have the potential to experience.
I agree that we have certainly come a long way and there is still much further to go. I have had the good fortune of being fairly close to the education of individuals with disabilities, and I can tell my colleagues I had one of the greatest experiences of my life last year when I gave a commencement address at the Neil Elementary School.
There were young people there who had difficulty speaking and needed special equipment in order to be able to speak. There were individuals who could not walk and were in wheelchairs or had other kinds of devices that helped them move. But the interesting thing, and, actually, it was one of those days that I actually left Washington to go back to Chicago to participate in this activity. My sister was the principal of that school, and I had promised her that I would be there for the graduation.
But by the time the graduation ended, there was not a dry eye in the auditorium. Because all of the teachers, all of the parents, all of the students, all of the people who had come to be a part had become so emotionally involved in what was taking place; and to see the glee and excitement on the faces and to feel the emotion coming from these young people, many of whom would never have been given any real chance at all of reaching that level of education attainment, as I sat there and saw that, I could not help but say to myself that no matter how difficult funds may be to acquire, no matter how tight the budgets might be, that we have no choice except to find every possible resource that we can to put all of the funding into these special education programs and activities. Because every time we change one life, then it has been worth the whole effort.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov