The Politics of IDEA Funding
By Andrew J. Rotherham
October 9, 2002

and an interesting opinion and history piece on political manuevering and reaction,
The Politics of IDEA Funding
By Andrew J. Rotherham
October 9, 2002 (in reaction to the IDEA 2004 reauthorization)
“The politicizing of IDEA funding has hindered rather than advanced a solution to the finance problem and distracted from other important reform issues in special education. Congress and the president can advance the debate by investing more in special education, but doing so based on policy instead of politics.“

Senator Biden’s response to Candidate Questionnaire from
American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), ADAPT, National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) Questionnaire
October 2007
[This was when he was in the Presidential race]
and
United Cerebral Palsy, The Arc and several other national disability groups sponsored a forum in November 2007 in which several presidential candidates addressed disability policy, including Senators John McCain and Joe Biden
ROUGHLY EDITED COPY
GSIL
NOVEMBER 2, 2007, 7:30 A.M. CST
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FORUM

That would be up to the democratically controlled legislature. The only way Palin would have any say in it is if there is a tie to be broken. McCain and Biden both have decades of voting history on funding IDEA and it has never been fully funded during either of their political careers.

Joint Legislative Education Funding Task Force, which worked for 3 years prior to making the recommendations forming the basis of AK HB 273, signed into law March 27, 2008.

Sponsor Statement: House Bill 273 .Education Funding.
“Relating to school funding, funding for student transportation services, the base student allocation, district cost factors, and the adjustments for intensive services and average daily membership calculations; and providing for an effective date.”

Base Student Allocation (BSA) : HB 273 will increase the BSA, which was current at $5,380 per student, by $100 per year from FY2008 levels for the next three fiscal years, from $5,480 in FY2009 (+22.3 million) to $5,580 in FY2010 (+$22.8 million) and $5,680 in FY2011 ($23.4 million.).

Intensive Needs Students: Currently, school districts receive 5 times the base student allocation (BSA) for each intensive needs student. The bill increases that amount to 9 times the BSA in FY09 (+$35.4 million), 11 times the BSA in FY10 (+$18 million) and 13 times the BSA in FY11 (+$18.3 million).

Other clauses relating to pupil transportation cost adjustments and district cost equalizations.

What I believe can be fairly stated, as is done by Rep. Hawker(-R), is that Governor Palin did show support by not vetoing the bill or otherwise bouncing it back to the legislature, but the active leadership and advocacy was in the legislature and the work of the Task Force commenced prior to her tenure.

The same place it is coming from now and that system is highly flawed. The democrats haven’t suggested anything that is remotely better then what we have now. Under the original design of the SSA, recipients were only to collect for two years. A vast majority of original recipients paid pennies on the dollar they received in benefits and we have been in a constant state of catch up ever since. The age of collection has never kept pace with the average age of life expectancy and it probably never will because no one wants to touch that third rail. SSA has paid many individuals that have never paid, were married to, or related to a person who ever paid a penny into the system. In the original SSA design, IIRC, 1 worker supported 6 recipients. We are nowhere near that ratio anymore. How many recipients can 1 worker support before the workers finally say they have had enough?