Speech #940057174

Mr. Chairman. although the Department of Health. Education. and Welfare has estimated that 50 percent of the 113.000 refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia are of school age. Ms. Julia Taft. the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health. Education. and Welfare for Human Development. has told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations that there specifically is no proposal to repay State and local education agencies for the costs incurred in educating them. The current average per pupil expenditure for school systems throughout the United States is approximately $1.300 per year. This means that unless something is done to remedy this situation. the State and local education agencies throughout the country. and the taxpayers who support those agencies. will have to assume $73.450.000 in added costs during the coming academic year for the education of the refugee children. To require educational agencies to furnish this service without remuneration adds an intolerable burden to that part of our governmental system which is least able to bear it. The public schools of our country are laboring under extreme financial difficulties. In the State of California. for example. the School Boards Association recently completed a survey which shows that 213 school districts. representing about 60 percent of the educational expenditures in the State as a whole. reported that they will be $221 million short of being able to meet the impact of inflation on their operating budgets. Many other States can cite equally discouraging figures. In response to expressions of concern about the costs of educating the refugee children. HEW representatives have explained that by spreading out the refugees throughout the 50 States. they hope to reduce the impact on the educational system. However. regardless of the extent to which the children may be spread out. the costs of their education still must be paid. at least until such time as their parents have been integrated Into our society and have begun earning their way and paying taxes. Our country has an obvious moral responsibility to accept these displaced persons. However. the Federal Government also bears a responsibility to reimburse hardpressed State and local agencies for the costs which they will inevitably Incur in providing necessary education for the refugee children. To do otherwise would impose on the local taxpayer a burden which is unreasonable and unacceptable. I urge the approval of the gentleman from Hawaii.