[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 193 (Wednesday, November 3, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H6167-H6171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEMOCRATS NATIONALIZE EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their 
remarks and submit extraneous materials.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. Miller of Illinois. Madam Speaker, last month the chair of the 
House Budget Committee, a member of Democratic leadership, told me 
during an education committee meeting that parents don't know what is 
best for their children. He said, ``We need to protect kids from their 
parents.''
  Last night, in some of the bluest parts of our country, parents 
disagreed. Last night was a resounding victory for parental rights and 
the future of our country. Parents are fed up--where I am from, we say 
riled up. They bravely stood up against the Marxist ideology that has 
taken over the radical left.
  Parents rejected racist critical race theory, teaching children that 
they are victims. They rejected a perverted sexualized curriculum 
forced upon young children. Parts of this curriculum are so perverted 
that if you actually talked about it on the airwaves, you would be 
fined for indecency. Yet, this is what is included in some of our 
elementary education curriculum. And they rejected a transgender 
political agenda that puts young girls in danger in a girls' restroom 
and will be the end of girls' athletics.
  In addition, they are being taught to hate our country, the land of 
freedom and opportunity. We want our children to be smart, to master 
the core subjects, and to love our neighbors and our country. Last 
night was only the beginning--a revolution of regular people. Never 
estimate the power of regular people to defend their country and their 
children and their freedom. American values will always defeat Marxist 
ideology.
  The message from parents is loud and clear: Don't mess with our kids.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Fitzgerald.)
  Mr. FITZGERALD. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Miller for 
yielding.
  Madam Speaker, our Nation's students are the future. They are our 
future police officers, doctors, technicians, and manufacturers. And to 
accomplish this, students will need localized education that is 
sensitive to the thoughts and concerns of students, parents, and 
teachers. That is the system we have had in the United States of 
America for many years.
  But lo and behold, inside this multitrillion-dollar infrastructure 
budget reconciliation package that is being crafted right now, as we 
stand here this evening, there are plans--and I don't want to blow this 
out of proportion--to nationalize and radicalize our Nation's education 
system.
  The Washington takeover of education would give the Biden 
administration unprecedented levels of Federal oversight and the 
ability to approve early education standards and provide childcare to 
wealthy families while pushing small providers out of the market.
  This proposal comes at a time when across the country parents are 
already feeling a little bit cast aside or excluded from some of the 
major decisions that are being made in their children's education.
  Students are being taught divisive and harmful curriculum. The one 
that is obviously at the forefront is CRT. When parents come to their 
local school board meetings to express their concerns, they have been 
met with hostility, and in some cases--extreme cases--they arrested a 
parent. It is crazy.
  This is especially important for parents in Wisconsin, my home State. 
Parents are fed up with the bureaucracy telling them they--not the 
parents--know better. And when parents ask

[[Page H6168]]

what their children are being taught, they often get a very limited and 
unsatisfactory response.
  So I came up, along with some of my colleagues, with a bill that we 
thought made sense; very easy, common sunshine-type of bill that 
ultimately would resolve many of these issues. We call it the CRT 
Transparency Act.
  Madam Speaker, the bill requires schools to post their curriculums 
online so that parents can see what their students are being taught. 
Seems simple to me. Just post it online. You have got nothing to hide. 
It gives the parents the opportunity to see exactly what their children 
are being taught.

                              {time}  1745

  The merits of this bill, I think, would ultimately warrant no 
controversy. The bill doesn't ask school boards to make private 
information public. Elementary and secondary curriculums are already 
public information. The parents who wish to call their school districts 
and inquire can do that. The problem is, the onus should not be on the 
parents to jump through hoops to get this information. No matter what 
the class may be, the bottom line is that the parents have the right to 
easily access this information.
  If schools aren't teaching divisive and backward curriculum, then 
there should be absolutely no reason not to make this information 
public. I have spoken to local education leaders back in southeastern 
Wisconsin, the Fifth Congressional District, who agree with the 
commonsense sentiment behind the proposals. Unfortunately, I think that 
President Biden, the Secretary of Education, and the Democrats don't 
agree, necessarily, with the parents having that much input. They 
certainly believe that they could bring influence to that entire 
educational system, which is not something they want.
  That is why the attorney general issued a memo instructing the 
Justice Department to investigate parents speaking up at the local 
school boards. This is wrong. Despite what my colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle may believe, parents do have the right to speak up at 
school board meetings and complain and be vocal about what their 
children are being taught. In fact, this is the hallmark of being a 
good parent, right? You just don't want to send your kid off to class 
and not be involved in what they are involved in every day.
  What we saw in Virginia last night sent an undeniably clear message. 
Those who embrace radical education policies and box out our parents do 
not represent what the American people want.
  My colleagues across the aisle want you to believe that they 
prioritize students and education, but the text of this budget 
reconciliation will tell a very different narrative. A narrative that 
expands the Federal Government's role in education at the expense of 
good parenting and student outcomes.
  I, and I think my Republican colleagues, will oppose any proposal 
that puts the bureaucracy before students.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Good).
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, last night was a great night for 
America. As Virginians across the Commonwealth, in bipartisan fashion, 
Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, rejected the radical, woke, 
socialist education policies of this Biden administration and this 
complicit Democrat majority in this Congress.
  Most of our schools will be better off being governed by the first 
seven ticked-off parents in line at the next school board meeting than 
the woke leftist, progressive, liberal members of the typical American 
school board.
  The Federal Government should not be involved in education. There is 
no constitutional basis for the Federal Government to be involved in 
education to begin with. I love our friend,   Thomas Massie, our 
colleague from Kentucky's bill that says--of which I am a cosponsor--
the Department of Education shall cease to exist on December 31 of 
2022. How much better our schools, our children, our parents, and 
families would be if that were the case.
  We are seeing the silver lining from the past 2 years with the China 
virus as the exposure has been there. What is being taught in the 
schools? The strong disinfectant of sunlight, letting parents see what 
their children are being taught as they supervise them learning from 
home.
  And, thankfully, thousands and thousands of parents showing up at 
school board meetings to make their voices heard because they don't 
want critical race theory and its ideology taught in our schools. It is 
amazing how the Democrat majority and their allies, their friends in 
the media say: That doesn't exist.
  It may be true that there isn't a class taught in a typical American 
high school that is called critical race theory, taught an hour a day 
every day for 5 days a week. Of course, that is not true. That is not 
typical. However, all throughout our country, critical race ideology, 
this theory that tries to define who we are as Americans: it tries to 
define Americans based on race; it tries to explain why we became a 
Nation; it tries to explain why the American Revolution was fought; it 
tries to identify who are victims and who are oppressors.
  That ideology is absolutely included in training for teachers all 
across this country. In fact, in just the last 2 weeks we have learned 
that in two of Virginia's largest blue counties, Fairfax County and 
Loudoun County, teachers are being trained with critical race ideology 
to have that permeate all of their teaching through all of their 
classes. It is the lens through which they are taught to present the 
material to their students.
  In Fairfax County, as a matter of fact, it was shown with a recent 
article by the Washington Times, spent $5.5 million dollars in the past 
year purchasing CRT-related curriculum and materials for their school 
system. $2.5 million of which was for--guess whose son in-law's 
company--the attorney general, Merrick Garland.
  So you have parents rising up saying this is not what we want taught 
in our schools. Not to mention, these radical transgender policies that 
infringe upon the rights of the 99.9 percent of students who just want 
to use the bathroom of their choice with people of their own biological 
gender.
  In Loudoun County, a county that has become notorious around the 
country because of this, we have a county where they have a male 
student who goes into the women's restroom and commits sexual assault. 
It was not exposed as it should have been and dealt with as it should 
have been. He transferred to another school where another assault takes 
place.
  After that occurs, the parent of the first student victim shows up at 
a school board meeting, understandably upset, surprisingly restrained 
from how upset a parent must be. What did we do? We arrest the parent 
at the school board meeting.

  After both of those assaults took place, that very school board 
passes their official transgender policy allowing male students who 
want to identify as female students to access those restrooms.
  In addition, throughout the country, we are making children, who now 
we want to vaccinate, they are almost no risk from the China virus, but 
we are making these children wear masks all day long despite there 
being almost no evidence that it makes any measurable difference for 
anyone to wear a mask. To do that to children all day long in a school 
is nothing short of child abuse.
  For this and many other reasons, Virginians across the Commonwealth 
rose up and said no to that and elected a Governor, a Lieutenant 
Governor, an attorney general, and a new Virginia House of Delegates 
that will say no to the radical views of the majority Democrat Party 
today in Virginia, that is aligned with the radical views on education 
and otherwise, here in this Chamber and in this town and in this 
administration.
  When I ran for office 2 years ago, I identified immigration, our 
fiscal situation and our spending, and education as the three most 
critical issues, the greatest threats to the future of our country. Our 
children are our most precious resource and they are truly our future. 
Our children's education is the one thing where those who hold all the 
levers of power here in Washington and--at least until January--in my 
home State of Virginia, they tell us: You must pay for it with 
compulsory taxes, but you have no say in that product that you are 
purchasing. In fact, the losing--thank God--the losing gubernatorial 
candidate in Virginia

[[Page H6169]]

who was resoundingly rejected, who tried to nationalize the election by 
bringing in all the heavy-hitters, the former President, the current 
President, the current Vice President, the losing candidate said: 
Parents, you got no say. It is none of your business. Give us your 
money. We will teach your kids. We will decide what they learn. We will 
decide the policies. If you show up to the school board systems, what 
we will do is identify you as a domestic terrorist and we will sic the 
FBI and the attorney general on you. Americans and Virginians said no. 
They also said no in New Jersey. And they are going to say no 
throughout this country next year.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the time and effort by my 
colleague from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), for leading the charge on this.
  So what are we looking at here? Parents, their kids, they have the 
perfect right to know what is going on in the schools and what the kids 
will be subject to during those seven or so hours per day that we 
entrust that system with our kids. Indeed, this is a covenant we have 
had for many, many years.
  Parents and families with the school system, with the government, 
that they are going to do the things and teach our kids and treat our 
kids in a way that we approve as parents during those hours a day in 
those formative years, all those hours they have together that they are 
not under our direct watch or supervision.
  So what is this all about? The direction it is going right now is 
indeed very disturbing. As we saw last night just across the river over 
in Virginia, an issue has been brought to a head by two different 
Governor candidates, and a lot of people going before that, to express 
their views in a First Amendment fashion to their school boards that 
they elect to do the job for them.
  Over here in Virginia we saw a real ground swell of things that we 
will be seeing a lot more of across this country. Indeed, we are seeing 
it in my own district at home. People saying no to what is being forced 
upon them in my own State by our Governor and a lot of health systems 
on the vaccine mandate for vaccines that are really unproven still for 
kids.
  In information that I saw today, it says the down-sized vaccine for 
5- to 11-year-olds probably doesn't really prevent anything, but it 
just may lessen their symptoms if they get the virus. Well, maybe 
parents would like to opt out of that. Maybe that is not something that 
is good enough for their kids given the offsetting possible risks. It 
comes back to: Whose kids are they?
  Going back to simpler and earlier times when the first settlers of 
this country came across and were settling in the West, and as the 
first roughnecks and those went and set up mining and cattle and 
settling in the West. Settling this Nation. They would then send for 
people to operate their schools as they got married and started 
families. A lot of one-room schoolhouses. I know that is not what we 
have right now, and, oh, he is getting all nostalgic and all that 
stuff. No.
  Could you imagine that those pioneers would put up with the idea that 
you are not allowed to know what is going on in your school. You are 
not allowed to know the curriculum. You are not allowed to know what 
school activities are going on, or the medical or health issues that 
your kids are going through. Can you imagine that back then? Can you 
imagine those pioneers, those settlers, those early colonials, even 
just 50 years ago, can you imagine they would put up with that?
  We have been lulled to sleep by allowing the system to do what it 
does. Well, people are speaking out, they are fighting back, and 
saying, no, we are not putting up with this anymore because the 
education system has gotten away from them.
  We have seen it. We saw it at the school board meetings in Virginia, 
and we see it all over the country. I am seeing it my district in 
northern California. They are going to these meetings and demanding to 
know what it is you are teaching them.
  As my colleague, Representative Miller, mentioned a little bit ago, 
it is amazing to watch when the parents--which really takes some guts--
stand up publicly and read back to the board some of the content that 
they are finding in the books that are in the library or even in direct 
curriculum, with the explicit sexual nature of what is being said and 
taught to kids at a very young age.

                              {time}  1800

  It is outrageous, and it makes everybody in the audience 
uncomfortable, what is being read off there. My hat is off to those 
moms and dads who are standing there in public reading these pretty 
ugly things to the board so they have to face it and so they have to 
deal with it.
  That is putting the spotlight on what this is for many, many people 
around the country. It is getting people off the sidelines and out of 
their busy lives. I know it is tough. A lot of families have to do two 
jobs because of high taxes and all the other demands on them these 
days, but we have to come off the sidelines.
  We are seeing more and more people making different choices for their 
kids in schools such as charter schools and private schools, whatever 
it is, because they want the best for their kid.
  When you see a homeschool family, a charter school family, or private 
school parents doing that, they are extra dedicated because they have 
to make an extra sacrifice to make sure their kids are getting a good 
education.
  And what do we get in this society here of public education?
  They make fun of those people. They say: Oh, those kids are awkward, 
and they don't fit in.
  They are some of the best-educated kids you have, Madam Speaker, and 
they are the ones who are moving forward to be in leadership versus the 
ones who are not given a school choice to break out of a bad situation.
  Especially in our urban areas, wouldn't these inner-city families 
like to have choices sometimes to alternative education instead of the 
same thing from the same old standards?
  So we are seeing people pushing back, fighting back, and demanding to 
be heard because your children do not belong to the government. They do 
not belong to the school system. They belong to you, given to you by 
God, and they are your responsibility.
  So you have every right to have your voice heard, not to be called a 
terrorist and not to be monitored by the FBI or the Attorney General 
whose family might be making money off of this or somebody else.
  You have every right to speak out. So do not be cowered by the left, 
by the media, and by the big school system that is trying to cower you 
into not being a part of it.
  You move forward, and you be strong. You demand to know and demand to 
ask better for your children because they are yours. They do not belong 
to the government or any education system that is supposed to be 
working for all of us.
  So I appreciate this Special Order hour tonight.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I do have to say that this is 
not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an issue that affects all 
American children.
  But where are the Democrat leaders?
  Why are they not speaking out on this?
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).
  Mr. CLYDE. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Miller for her 
leadership on this vital issue of protecting education.
  In their quest for absolute power, Democrats are not just stopping 
with doubling the size of the IRS to target Americans, granting mass 
amnesty for millions of illegal migrants, or imposing burdensome tax 
hikes on workers and small businesses. No. They also plan to 
nationalize early education.
  The Democrats' $1.75 trillion Big Government socialist spending bill 
aims to strip parents of their freedom and hand over more power to 
bureaucrats and politicians in Washington. Under this irresponsible 
spending package, the Biden administration obtains total control in 
approving early childhood education standards while limiting parents' 
choice in their children's education.
  Mark my words, Madam Speaker. The Democrats' reckless reconciliation 
bill is a shameless ruse to indoctrinate America's youth with divisive 
curriculum and radical ideas. It is no coincidence that this comes at a 
time when

[[Page H6170]]

the Department of Justice is targeting parents--yes, targeting 
parents--for exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out 
against critical race theory curriculum and unscientific mask mandates 
in schools. No wonder parents across the country are fed up with this 
nonsense.
  Parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's education. 
It is not the radical left; it is not the Federal Government; and it is 
not the failed teachers unions. It is parents.
  By injecting woke political propaganda into our schools instead of 
focusing on beneficial subjects such as history, reading, writing, and 
arithmetic, Democrats are holding children back from a top-tier 
education.
  Additionally, through the Democrats' empty promise guise of 
affordable childcare, this legislation would actually drive childcare 
prices through the roof, forcing middle-class families to spend roughly 
$13,000 more per year.
  Simply put, the Democrats' Big Government, socialist bill has the 
Federal Government's fingerprints all over education, which is not in 
accordance with the Constitution, and that should terrify every parent 
across the country.
  This is one of the many reasons why we need to preserve school and 
parental choice at the local level. It will ensure every solitary 
student has the opportunity to receive an education that will 
adequately prepare them for the future and that every solitary parent 
has the choice to decide where their children receive that education.
  Madam Speaker, let's empower parents and not embolden the Federal 
Government.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. C. Scott Franklin).
  Mr. C. SCOTT FRANKLIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I appreciate 
Congresswoman Miller's efforts and leadership on this critical and 
vital topic.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today in defense of the God-given right of 
parents to guide and shape the education of their children. Preparing 
our children for the world and teaching them the skills they need to be 
successful adults is not only a parent's right; it is also their 
responsibility. Unfortunately, it is one of many of our sacred rights 
that my Democrat colleagues want to rip away and give to the Federal 
Government.

  Having already corrupted our higher education system with anti-
American ideology, Democrats are now pushing their indoctrination 
program down to K-12. This may sound like partisan rhetoric, but my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle are hiding their intentions.
  Their build back broke plan includes a $10 billion environmental 
justice slush fund that will be used to push the Green New Deal in 
universities. They are incorporating divisive, racist ideologies like 
critical race theory into classrooms across the country.
  They will try to say that is not true. But don't buy their lie. 
Regardless of what you name it, Madam Speaker, any curriculum that 
teaches kids that they are inherently racist or hopelessly victims 
simply because of the color of their skin is itself racist. It runs 
counter to the American ideal. That is not freedom of ideas. That is 
indoctrination.
  They are working actively to push parents out of every aspect of 
their children's education.
  Don't believe it.
  In Loudoun County, Virginia, just across the river here, any parent 
wanting to review the CRT components of the curriculum is required to 
sign a nondisclosure agreement, a legally binding document that forbids 
them from sharing what they find out.
  What is it in their curriculum that they don't want people to find 
out about it?
  And once they find out about it, why don't they want it to be shared?
  I come from Florida, a State where we value transparency and the 
sunshine. We have very strict sunshine laws. This would never fly in 
the State of Florida. We are not afraid of what our government is doing 
there. In fact, we want people to know more about it.
  The COVID pandemic and our country's response to it will have long-
lasting effects on our Nation. Perhaps one of the most destructive of 
these aspects is the developmental damage inflicted on our children 
because their needs were placed last.
  If there is any silver lining at all to the pandemic, it is that 
parents whose children were subjected to school shutdowns were finally 
able to experience firsthand what they are being taught. They responded 
with anger and frustration at the politicians who have allowed this 
travesty to occur.
  Unfortunately, the Democrat response to this nationwide movement has 
been to treat concerned parents as domestic terrorists, and they have 
weaponized the Justice Department in an effort to get these parents to 
sit down and shut up.
  Terry McAuliffe's statement that he doesn't believe parents should 
tell schools what to teach was a horrifying peer into the soul of what 
radical progressives truly believe, that Big Brother, the Federal 
Government, knows best and should be given full autonomy to control our 
lives.
  But Virginians put the Democrats on notice last night. America 
rejects their efforts to ram through a toxic platform of cradle-to-
grave government dependence. This doesn't just include Federal 
overreach in our education system but also in the outrageous spending 
programs that will destroy our economic prosperity.
  Democrats are trying to sell Americans a bill of goods they don't 
want, they can't afford, and with money the country doesn't have.
  During election years, we often ask the American people how they are 
doing compared to 4 years ago. I would ask them now: How are you doing 
compared to 10 months ago?
  Our education system is falling apart, our southern border is a 
disaster, violent crime has skyrocketed across the country, our botched 
withdrawal from Afghanistan has diminished our standing on the world 
stage, and inflation is running rampant. Every action the Biden 
administration takes is hurting our country. Americans know they are 
worse off, but Democrats appear to be unaware or apathetic.
  As I look across the aisle, where are the traditional liberals?
  If you are still there, it is time to come out of hiding and stand up 
to the radical progressives who are destroying the very fabric of the 
country I know you love. Stop listening to the D.C. and big city echo 
chambers. Those are not the voice of America.
  Show the American people that you are listening to them by standing 
against divisive rhetoric in our schools, stopping outrageous 
government spending, and supporting law and order. Yesterday's election 
should serve as a wake-up call to all who wish to save America from 
destruction. It is not too late.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I want to take this 
opportunity to commend the Governor of Florida for the great example he 
has been to the rest of the States and how he is leading the way in 
education. We appreciate it.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity.
  Madam Speaker, it is time to put our kids first in education. Far-
left Democrats who want the government and teachers unions in charge of 
what children are taught have been working overtime to strip parents of 
their rights. Within their boondoggle tax-and-spend agenda, Democrats 
have slipped in a quiet government takeover of our schools. Ultimately, 
this would ensure Washington bureaucrats and teachers unions have a 
larger influence on shaping a child's upbringing than their parents.
  Under the Democrats' monstrous multitrillion-dollar socialist 
spending bill is a provision that creates universal daycare and 
preschool and would allow the government to decide what children are 
taught, where they will spend their time, and who can teach and care 
for them.

  This is simply wrong. It is not fair, and it violates the trust we 
put in our schools.
  When it comes to their children's education, parents and families 
deserve more control, not less. We have already seen what government-
controlled education looks like as government-run public schools fail 
to teach children basic skills.
  Worse, Democrats are using the public education system to push 
leftwing ideologies and divisive curricula like critical race theory 
and the historically inaccurate 1619 Project, which do

[[Page H6171]]

nothing but pollute the minds of our young children.
  Parents and families deserve schools they can trust. As one of the 
Representatives for Tennessee and as the father of two young children, 
I am working to put power back into the hands of parents, families, and 
local school leaders.
  Let's make student welfare and traditional education the only special 
interest we fund and promote when it comes to our children's schools, 
not leftwing efforts to turn schools into far left, ideological 
indoctrination centers.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. To conclude, Madam Speaker, I want to say 
that we want our children to be smart; we want them to master the core 
subjects; and we want them to love their neighbor and their country.
  Please do not underestimate the power of regular people to defend 
their children and their country.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________