FEDERAL FUNDING FOR PL 94-142

WHEREAS, PL94-l42greatlyexpandsthe rights of handicapped children and imposes numerous educational responsibilities on state and local educational agencies; and

WHEREAS, handicapped children need and deserve a free, appropriate public education and many related services to help ameliorate their handicapping conditions; and

WHEREAS, complying with the full spirit and intent of PL 94-142 has proven to be more costly than ever imagined by the bill's authors; and

WHEREAS, the federal government's financial grants will only increase to a maximum of 40 percent of the costs in the year 1982, thereby causing enormous fiscal strains on state and local educational budgets; and

WHEREAS, other educational programs may have to be shortchanged at the expense of non-handicapped children or some of the mandates may be reduced or ignored at the expense of handicapped children in order to find additional funds the states are required to pay:

RESOLVED, that the AFT lobbies at the national level to provide full federal funding for PL 94-142 so that handicapped students will not become pawns in local taxpayer revolts or in fights to improve educational programs for the non-handicapped.