[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H1134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PROTECTING CHILDREN

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, just a few weeks ago, I declared this 
year the year of the child. In the course of that moment, I have seen 
the abuse of children around the world.
  In Ukraine, Russia has stolen 700,000 children, all the way to the 
United States of America and the State of Texas, where the State 
education agency is attempting to take over the seventh-largest school 
district in the Nation, the Houston Independent School District, where 
the children have been performing at their very best, even in spite of 
the pandemic.
  There has been a law that was passed that suggested that if the 
schools had a number of years of what we call failing grades, then it 
would immediately throw them into the hands of the State agency that 
has no capability of running a school system; no capability of dealing 
with teachers and raising their salaries; no capability of dealing with 
parents, support staff, and excellent children and their performance.
  I am asking the U.S. Department of Education and President Biden to 
step in to protect school districts across America and to keep them 
from the political football that happens with Republican Governors who 
are attempting to make an example of these school districts.
  These children are brilliant. They can learn. They are majority-
minority, and they can learn. I believe it is important that school 
districts be allowed to teach with the teachers' and parents' lead and 
not to be taken over by a board of managers that answers to no one.

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