[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 156 (Thursday, September 26, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1211-E1212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         CELEBRATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF INNERCITY STRUGGLE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 26, 2019

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate 
InnerCity Struggle on its 25th anniversary of movement building on the 
Eastside of Los Angeles.
  InnerCity Struggle (ICS) was started in 1994 by a group of parents, 
youth, and residents in Boyle Heights who joined together to find 
solutions to a crisis in their community. ICS has organized young 
people and families to demand educational justice, an end to the 
school-to-prison pipeline, and college access for all.
  A quarter-century later, ICS has built an impressive record of 
significant policy victories, including $940 million in public 
resources for neighborhood schools. It has empowered more than 1,200 
grassroots leaders who work together to engage decision makers and hold 
them accountable.
  In 2004, ICS won its first significant campaign when the Board of 
Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) agreed to 
build new Eastside schools for the first time in more than 80 years. 
The Eastside's Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools were among the most 
overcrowded schools in the nation. LAUSD ultimately opened three new 
high schools and a new elementary school on the Eastside between 2009 
and 2012. And in 2018, after years of ICS demands, the school board 
agreed to invest $173 million in modernizing the under-resourced and 
neglected Roosevelt High School campus. By 2022, the district will have 
transformed the school into a state-of-the-art center anchored in 
college and career preparation.
  ICS parents and students have also taken the stance that all students 
should be eligible to apply to college. In 2005, ICS was part of a 
citywide coalition that helped secure the
``A-G Life Prep'' policy, which mandated that LAUSD align its 
graduation requirements with California public university eligibility. 
That year, only 44 percent of LAUSD graduates from Eastside high 
schools had A-G college course requirements. By 2016, a historic 80 
percent of Eastside graduates had A-G requirements.
  ICS also recognizes the power of voting to shape our communities. 
That is why the organization has invested in engaging and mobilizing 
voters on the Eastside. In all, ICS has engaged over 51,000 voters, and 
registered 4,000 new ones.
  ICS helped form the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition in 2013. This 
county-wide coalition was formed to end the criminalization of young 
boys and men of color by creating and influencing public policy that 
invests in young people. One of the coalition's key victories was a 
demand for ending the use of ``willful defiance'' as grounds for school 
suspension. The ``willful defiance'' category had a long record of 
disproportionately targeting African American and Latinx students, 
particularly males. The LAUSD Board voted to ban ``willful defiance'' 
suspensions in favor of restorative justice interventions, making it 
the first district in the nation to do so.
  In 2014, ICS secured $50 million for the construction of 
comprehensive school-based

[[Page E1212]]

wellness centers in high-need schools, so these schools could play a 
more important role in providing wrap-around supports for communities. 
That same year, ICS joined forces with the Advancement Project and 
Community Coalition on a successful campaign which led to LAUSD's 
adoption of a resolution to equitably distribute new state funding, 
called the Local Control Funding Formula, to the highest-need schools. 
The campaign argued that areas in the Eastside and South LA deserved an 
equitable distribution of funding, based on decades of disinvestment 
that had led to higher concentrations of poverty and trauma in these 
areas.
  Earlier this year, ICS moved into a bright new era when it opened the 
InnerCity Struggle Youth and Community Center. This permanent 
headquarters will serve as the political hub for the Eastside and 
inspire a new generation of leaders to transform their neighborhoods. 
The center will be a place where young people can find their voice, and 
parents can advance change.
  On October 3, 2019, InnerCity Struggle will commemorate its 25th 
anniversary, and I will be joining more than four hundred supporters 
who are expected to attend their celebration. Madam Speaker, I ask my 
colleagues to please join me in celebrating InnerCity Struggle for 
being a leading voice for progress on the Eastside of Los Angeles and 
reaching this historic milestone.

                          ____________________