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Press Release
 
February 27 , 2006  
VO: ALIEF SCHOOLS HAVE YET TO RECEIVE ONE PENNY OF PROMISED DISASTER RELIEF
State Rep Says Schools Dealing With 3,000 Children of Hurricane Evacuees

(ALIEF) - State Representative Hubert Vo today said local public schools have yet to receive a single penny of the more than $18 million in disaster relief funds originally promised to help accommodate 3,000 homeless students who started classes in Alief classrooms in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"It is unfair to expect our schools to provide an adequate education to these newcomers when our local taxpayers are already stretched to the limit and public education dollars are scarce," Vo wrote this weekend in a letter to Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley.

(click here for the full text of the letter)

Vo said local school and community officials are increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of the federal bureaucracy in authorizing the funds and an apparent scheme by state leaders in Austin to retain up to half of the potential aid for schools like Alief if it ever does arrive.

"I urge you in the strongest possible terms to make plans to remove any obstacles which are standing in the way of getting the full amount of promised resources to our community's schools," Vo wrote.

 

The U.S. Congress recently proposed legislation in the wake of the natural disasters that would have provided an estimated $18 million for Alief ISD, which has taken in more hurricane evacuees than any other public school district in the state except Houston ISD.

Federal lawmakers from states not affected by the hurricanes cut the proposed Congress aid package in half. After the reduced package was passed, Texas officials went to Washington, D.C. to argue that TEA should retain half of each school district's allotment under the already smaller total.

Vo said Alief and other schools have budgeted on assurances that they would receive an estimated $6,000 in emergency funding per student. That amount could now drop to as low as $1,500.

"This reduction in the promised aid is especially troubling as the Legislature prepares to meet in a special session on public schools," Vo said.

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