mr. chairman , i yield myself 5 minutes .  first let me compliment my friend from texas ( mr. cuellar )  , a new member of the committee .  i appreciate his service .  we have worked together on a number of issues .  but let me give a slightly different tack from what he was suggesting with regard to our record on education because i think it is important for us to see what has come before .  first , with regard to education totals , as you can see , we have grown on an average of 9 percent a year for the last 5 years .  there are not many programs around washington that have grown that fast .  homeland security is the only other department that has grown at that rate .  nine percent .  this is the total we have spent for education .  again , is it enough ?  you might say no .  could we always spend more ?  of course .  but i want to put it in perspective .  nine percent annual growth over the last 5 years .  title i , the main program that affects no child left behind , has grown 10 percent per year since 2000 and was funded at $ 12 billion for fiscal year 2005 .  that annual growth , again , every year has gone up .  pell grants has grown 10 percent per year since 2000 and $ 12.4 billion in this fiscal year .  no child left behind has grown at 40 percent under president bush .  i understand there will always be this debate that programs are authorized at one level and then they are appropriated at yet another level .  everyone around here knows this , but it is a game that we play with our constituents .  there is almost no program that is funded at its authorized level .  that is not a floor .  it is a ceiling .  that is always the way it has been approached in congress .  special education , a program that i feel a personal affinity toward and it was a personal goal and leadership that i took with regard to special education to our states and to our schools and to our classrooms and for our kids with special needs , i am proud of what we have done .  these green charts do not mean anything compared to what it has meant in the lives of the kids that are receiving a quality education and it has unlocked opportunity for them that is boundless .  that is because we have invested some resources there .  i just want to end with this .  it is not only about the money .  we come down here with these green bar charts as if to say , if i spend this much it means that i do n't care and if i spend this much it means that i care a little more , or here i am caring a little bit more now .  watch out , here i am caring some more .  it is getting higher .  i am caring even more .  and the more we spend , the more we care .  and the more we invest , the more we care .  and we measure by green charts the compassion , the caring , the value , as if money alone is the only measure .  i have got to tell my colleagues something .  take special education .  go talk to any one of their teachers back home in the special education classroom and ask them whether they have seen these increases in their classrooms .  do the members know what is going on , mr. chairman ?  the states are taking that money , and it is not getting through their bureaucracy .  we are getting this money out of washington , but it is not getting to the classroom teacher teaching our child .  so their chart may look a little bit bigger ; our chart may look a little bit bigger , and our charts look great , and if i care at $ 5 and they care at $ 6 , maybe they care $ 1 more , and we get into all of this .  and we are not looking at the results .  we need to look at the results of these programs and find out whether they are getting to the kids in the classrooms .  and i have got to tell my colleagues right now it is not .  so we have got to provide the oversight .  it can not just be about the money .  and that is the last chart i want to show .  for all of the chest beating about education and the priority , see that little red line of the total amount spent on education in our country ?  that is what the federal government kicks in .  we are talking , on any given day , like about 6 percent .  the people who are really doing the work here are our local school boards , our local state legislators , our local parents and community leaders .  they are kicking in all this amount right here .  that is what is being kicked in .  it is this little red part that we all of a sudden think is so important and that we beat our chests about .  the federal government is not going to solve education , mr. chairman .  not with a big red line or a little red line or with this money or that amount of money .  it is not about the money .  it is about results .  we have got to focus on results in education , and this budget accomplishes that .  