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The Administration urges Senate passage of H.R. 2614, as amended by the
pending manager's substitute; although, the Administration opposes the
provision that inappropriately links implementation of the Reading
Excellence Act with increases in special education funding.
While it differs from the President's original proposal, H.R. 2614 is
largely consistent with the President's goal of ensuring that all children
read well and independently by the end of the third grade. The bill would:
(1) improve teachers' ability to teach reading effectively; (2) promote
family literacy programs to help parents be their child's first teachers;
and (3) improve the quality of tutoring programs by supporting tutor
training.
The Administration, however, objects to the provision of H.R. 2614 that
would prevent implementation of these important initiatives unless certain
funding goals are met under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). IDEA funding levels should be determined in the annual
appropriations process on the same program-by-program basis as other
programs. Moreover, many children are referred to special education
programs because of their reading difficulties. Research shows that many
of these reading difficulties could be remediated without special
education, if these problems were discovered and addressed early by trained
teachers and involved parents, precisely the kind of activities that the
rest of the bill would support.
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