“No Child Left Behind was supposed to assess which kids are falling through the cracks in America’s education system,” said Rehberg, a member of the Subcommittee.  “Unfortunately, this Administration has negated any successes by underfunding the programs proving to be the most effective.  I fail to see why the Administration continues to speak out of both sides of their mouths on this issue.”

During the hearing, Rehberg questioned Secretary Spelling about the cumulative impact of the President’s budget on the education of Montana’s rural and tribal students.  In particular, he criticized the funding levels of Impact Aid, rural education, and the TRIO program.  Impact Aid is a program designed to ensure military children, children residing on Indian lands, and children residing on federally-owned low rent housing facilities receive a quality education by helping school districts, which have lost tax revenue as a result of the federal presence in their district. TRIO provides additional resources to assist low-income, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline.

Rehberg also emphasized that NCLB was supposed to be about the individual students and that these programs were a great example of funds going directly to a single student.

“You guys just don’t get it,” said Rehberg in the hearing.  “How can you defend NCLB while you undercut it at the same time?”