Speech #940110268

At the same time. in their struggle to meet additional costs in the coming school year. schools will be looking to their tax base to provide additional revenues. Over 50 percentin California 56.5 percentof most school costs are paid by property owners under the property tax. That means that more than half the cost of educating each refugee childunless Federal help is forthcomingwill fall on the shoulders of the property taxpayer. already by far the most overburdened tax group in the country. Any assumption that the property taxpayer can. or will. write a blank check for additional burdens brought on directly by Federal policyand the relocation program clearly is Federal policyis incorrect. insensitive. and grossly unfair. The provision of Federal funds to help meet the urgent potential scope of the refugee education program is essential for other reasons as well. On May 8. by a vote of 91 to 1. theSenate adopted a resolution of welcome to the refugees. authored by Senator JAMES B. ALLEN and me. Several days later. the Congress passed and sent to the President a bill authorizing $405 million in emergency moneys to aid in refugee relocation. $30 million of that total was designated for "bilingual and vocational training"-a term we later learned was interpreted by the Department of Health. Education. and Welfare as being primarily for the lafiguage and vocational training of refugee adults. No other moneys for education were provided under that bill. During the Senate debate. I expressed to the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. SPARKMAN. my concern over the need for adequate provision of education funds for refugee children. In response. Senator SPARK^MAN told me that the committee. during its consideration of the bill. "was very much aware of the potential refugee impact on schools." and he quoted from the committee report: The Committee anticipates that HEW will develop procedures to insure that local communities will not be adversely affected by resettlement of refugees. I said at the time: If the federal governmentspecifically the Department of Health. Education. and Welfarefails. in my judgment. to meet its responsibilities in full.