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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 9, 2015 09:37 AM |
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| From: | Representative Stephen Bloom |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | 2015-16 Appropriation – Education for Individuals with Disabilities |
| Since Governor Wolf’s June 30 veto of the 2015-16 general appropriations bill (HB 1192) and his September 28 veto of the four-month emergency funding bill (SB 1000), state and federal tax dollars have continued to accumulate in our state treasury. The governor’s vetoes have blocked these funds from reaching schools and human service providers, putting students and vulnerable citizens in peril. Vital programming has been cut and, in some cases, halted. Each day the crisis deepens, children lose education, workers lose jobs, and people in need lose help. Therefore, I will soon introduce the following and several other freestanding appropriation bills to fully release critical blocked funding for education, health, and human services, in amounts at or very near those proposed by the governor in his 2015-16 budget and passed by the General Assembly in HB 1192: A bill (HB 1588) to appropriate $457 million in federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds in the Department of Education’s budget. These federal funds assist Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in providing a free appropriate public education to all children with disabilities in our schools. Subgrants are made to each of the 29 intermediate units to work with their respective member school districts to supplement services to students with disabilities. There are no state funds included in this legislation. This federal appropriation amount was requested by the Governor in his March 3rd Budget and included in House Bill 1192. Enacting this legislation will allow our Department of Education to draw these dollars down from the federal government and pay them out to our schools. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important and urgently necessary legislation. |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB1588