[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 46 (Thursday, March 15, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H1614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      RECOGNIZING PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN WASHINGTON'S SEVENTH DISTRICT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Washington (Ms. Jayapal) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of our 
wonderful public schools across the country.
  Every child, Mr. Speaker, has the right to pursue opportunity, and 
through our public schools our country makes that opportunity a reality 
every day. Education imparts practical and invaluable skills that kids 
carry with them for the rest of their lives, teaches our children to 
become engaged members of our society and our democracy, and public 
education is a great equalizer, having remained a means of mobility for 
generations of families. I know this firsthand, Mr. Speaker. I came to 
the United States when I was 16 years old by myself to go to college 
and take advantage of all the opportunities that an American education 
had to offer.
  For much of our Nation's history, our public schools have served this 
essential purpose of helping students and their families to thrive. And 
public schools, which serve all students, regardless of who they are, 
are the only institutions where the vast majority of our kids can 
access these benefits.
  It is those schools and the teachers, professionals, and staff who 
serve in them--and I use ``serve'' very deliberately, because it is a 
service to be in our public schools, where teachers could earn so much 
more elsewhere but choose to be in the public schools because that is 
the place where they can help the most kids. It is those schools and 
those amazing successes in my own district that I want to celebrate 
today.
  Monserrat is a teacher at Concord International Elementary School 
where almost 80 percent of the students are from low-income families 
and more than half are English language learners. Last year, Monserrat 
created a writing lesson using both Spanish and English. Before this 
lesson, most of the kids wrote at a kindergarten or a first grade 
level, but by the end of that lesson, every single one of her students 
was able to write a complex complete sentence. And over the next year 
Monserrat's second graders became ambassadors for Concord 
International, giving tours of their school in both Spanish and 
English. It is clear that her investment in her students opened doors 
to achievement for these Seattle public school students.
  Another story comes from Shorewood High School in Shoreline, 
Washington. Emily, a leader on her school's robotics team, wasn't 
interested in STEM until she got to high school because no one 
encouraged her to pursue it when she was younger. It wasn't until she 
learned about the lack of representation of women and girls in STEM 
that she realized that something needed to change. And last summer, 
Emily launched the Full STEAM Ahead Club, an all girls' mentoring group 
that encourages middle school girls to pursue science, technology, 
engineering, arts, and math. The youth mentors showed girls how 
important it is to engage in STEM fields early, and they work every day 
to expand girls' perceptions of what they can achieve, which is to say, 
anything.

  And at Evergreen High School, a youth-led group called FEEST is 
working to combat food injustice in public schools. One of their 
campaigns recently made waves when youth leaders created the first 
student advisory committee with the district's nutrition services 
director. They provided the director with feedback on how to increase 
fresh and culturally relevant food items on school menus. And last 
month, they successfully got one of the recipes they created onto the 
district menu.
  Through their work, these young people have developed relationships 
with their classmates, with decisionmakers at the school district 
level, and they are building power and using their own innate 
intelligence about the issues that matter to create change in their 
schools and communities.
  Mr. Speaker, I share these stories today to highlight how critical 
public schools are to my constituents and all Members. And as Members 
of Congress, we have a responsibility to ensure that we continue 
supporting our public schools. For example, public money should go to 
public schools. It should not be used to bankroll private entities and 
corporations that don't deliver excellent, inclusive, equitable 
instruction.
  Our public schools are under attack right now from the Secretary of 
Education and the Trump administration. Our public schools and public 
money should not be used to generate a profit. And teachers, Mr. 
Speaker, should be teaching and not carrying guns to try to protect 
their students.
  As tens of thousands of students across our country and here in the 
capital have rallied and called for attention to safety in our public 
schools by passing sensible gun reform legislation, Mr. Speaker, 
unfortunately, this body has yet to address the issue of guns and 
safety in our schools and in our classrooms.
  And if we want to support education for our kids, we should make sure 
that they have the right to live. That is what we are talking about: 
kids who go to sleep at night wondering if they are going to cower in 
the corners of their classrooms the next day because somebody has a gun 
because Congress has not done our job.
  The Trump administration and Secretary DeVos have demonstrated that 
they want to make sure that the money is what prevails. And, Mr. 
Speaker, today as we honor our public schools, we also need to honor 
the responsibility of Congress to protect our students and protect our 
public education.

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