[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 62 (Monday, April 7, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1447-H1455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EDUCATION IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS,
CONGRESS, AND CONSTITUENTS
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms.
McClellan of Virginia was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of
the minority leader. )
General Leave
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order hour.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Haridopolos). Is there objection to the
request of the gentlewoman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today
to co-anchor this CBC Special Order hour along with my distinguished
colleague, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn).
For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have an opportunity to
speak directly to the American people on education, an issue of great
importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, and the
constituents who we represent.
Mr. Speaker, in the 1880s, my great-grandfather founded a school in
his rural community because the State of Alabama did not provide a good
education to Black children. As explained in his autobiography, he
wanted to teach children, whose parents and grandparents had been
enslaved on plantations nearby, to be of better service to themselves,
their employers, and the community in which they lived.
In the 1930s, my father and his sisters attended that school because
the State
[[Page H1448]]
of Tennessee did not provide a good education to Black children. Like
his father and his grandfather, my dad became an educator himself,
ultimately teaching the next generation of educators at Virginia State
University.
In the 1950s, my mother had to move away from her hometown because
the State of Mississippi did not provide a good education for Black
children. The only school that did was run by the Catholic church, but
only up until the eighth grade.
As the third youngest of 14 children, she wanted more than the
domestic and laborer jobs that were available to her parents, her
grandparents, and her siblings. She had to move to go to high school,
becoming an educator herself, eventually running the TRiO Programs at
Virginia State University. These are federally funded programs run by
the Department of Education to work to ensure that children like her
have the support they need to go to and graduate college.
My parents understood how important a good education is not only to
individual opportunity, but to a thriving, healthy economy, community,
and democracy. Like my grandparents and great-grandparents before them,
they dedicated their lives to ensuring not only that their children had
a good education but every child did. Not every child is so lucky.
The legacy of 300 years of slavery and Jim Crow, massive resistance,
and chronic underfunding have created too many obstacles to the ability
of States and local governments to give every child an opportunity for
a good education.
For the past 20 years, first as a State legislator and now in
Congress, I have worked to ensure that every child in Virginia could
have a good education. As the mother of two children in public schools,
I know that, even with bipartisan and Herculean efforts, there are
still gaps in Virginia and across the country.
The Department of Education was created to fill those gaps. The
Department protects students' civil rights, particularly those with
disabilities who often need special accommodation to learn. It provides
support to attract, train, and retain the best and brightest teachers,
school administrators, support personnel such as counselors, nurses,
and mental and behavioral health specialists, especially in hard-to-
staff rural or urban schools.
It measures and tracks academic progress across the country and helps
those school divisions that lag behind address areas of concern. It
manages student loan and grant programs that ensure children without
financial means can go to and succeed in college without incurring more
debt than they could ever pay off.
The Trump administration's illegal actions to dismantle the
Department of Education will ensure that these gaps remain. The
administration claims that it is just returning control of public
education back to States and localities. States and localities have
always had that control, but they have not always had the will or the
ability to ensure that every child can get a good education.
In my own State of Virginia, State and local officials and educators
right now fear that local agencies and the Virginia Department of
Education will not have the funding or the staff to handle the
workload, especially in areas like special education.
The block grant funding that the Trump administration promises comes
with little accountability, making it unclear whether the funds will
actually reach the students and schools that need them the most:
children with disabilities in rural and low-income communities.
Education lays the foundation for a strong future. Our Founding
Fathers understood that. Today's students are the entrepreneurs, civic
leaders, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and Members of Congress
of tomorrow. We owe it to our parents, our grandparents, and our great-
grandparents to protect and build upon the progress that they have
made. We owe it to our children and theirs to fight efforts to roll
back that progress now.
Mr. Speaker, it is now my privilege to yield to the gentleman from
the great State of South Carolina, the Honorable James Clyburn.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms.
McClellan) tonight in opposition to the Trump administration's attacks
on education.
Mr. Speaker, as the gentlewoman just mentioned, our country has a
very spotty history when it comes to educating everybody. I know a lot
about the history she just mentioned in Alabama and Mississippi and now
in Virginia.
Hailing from South Carolina, my own dad was not allowed an education
beyond the seventh grade by the State of South Carolina.
Thanks to Black churches. In fact, in my congressional district,
there are seven HBCUs. Only two are supported by the State. The other
five are church schools: The AME Church at Allen University; the
Baptists at Benedict College and Morris College; and Episcopalians at
Voorhees. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion, AME Zion, has a school
up in Rock Hill outside of my district. I better mention Claflin
University in Orangeburg, as well.
Mr. Speaker, as we talk about education and think about the Trump
administration's efforts to minimize the importance of focusing on
areas that have been left out of the process, I will mention a couple
things here tonight that is going to run a little bit contrary to what
my staff has researched for me.
The knowledge and skills of our young people and the things that they
learn in school should not be limited to people who look like them or
only people with similar backgrounds and experiences. We learn from
each other when we bring to discussion a plethora of backgrounds and
experiences that we can learn from.
I found that out in my own marriage. I was married to the same woman
for 58 years. I remember when schools were first integrated and the
courts demanded in the case called Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board
of Education in Charlotte, North Carolina, that we ought to allow
busing to educate children.
Mr. Speaker, I thought there was something wrong with that decision.
I didn't like it because I thought it put too much burden on students.
{time} 2000
I went out talking about my opposition to that decision.
In fact, I spoke to a TV reporter who held the mike in my face and I
waxed what I thought was eloquent until I got home. When I got home, my
wife was standing in the middle of the door, tears were streaming down
her face. I asked her what was wrong. I thought maybe something had
happened to our daughter. We had one child at the time. I rushed toward
her, what is wrong? Is something wrong with Mignon? She said no. There
is nothing wrong with Mignon. I just saw you on television and there is
something wrong with you. Sit down and let me ``splain'' something to
you.
Now, it is one thing to get an explanation, but when the Gullah
Geechee woman from South Carolina starts ``splaining,'' it is time to
sit down, and I did. She told me about her experiences growing up in
rural South Carolina when her class, her students did not have
schoolbuses. They had to walk 2.5 miles to school every morning and 2.5
miles back home every afternoon. She told me that the White kids had
buses. They would ride by them and throw urine-filled balloons as they
walked.
She said to me on that day, they were not against busing then and you
best not be against busing now.
I learned the difference in our backgrounds. I grew up on a paved
street. I walked three blocks to my elementary school, six blocks to my
middle school, and I am a graduate of Mather Academy. We called it a
boarding school in those days. So I didn't know what it was like to
have to walk 2.5 miles to school. Then I reflected on those children in
Clarendon County, South Carolina, who walked 9.5 miles to school every
day, no bus. The White kids had buses and they had to walk. Why?
Because the superintendent of education said that yours don't pay
enough taxes for buses. That is what we have been trying to get over in
this country. That is why we had Brown v. Board of Education, which
started in that little town of Summerton, South Carolina, as Briggs v.
Elliott when a Federal
[[Page H1449]]
judge, Waties Waring, himself a great-grandson of a Confederate
soldier, Waties Waring decided that the time had come for us to put
that kind of process behind us, and he wrote the dissenting opinion in
Briggs v. Elliott that Earl Warren used to issue the majority opinion
in Brown v. Board of Education getting that behind us.
That is what this is all about, bringing people of different
backgrounds and experiences together so that we can educate our
children properly. When we see young people going to school, becoming
educated, and trying to do the things that are necessary to prepare
themselves for the future, we would do well as a government, a Federal
Government, to reinforce the efforts of our States because when you
give total educational responsibility to States, it means that the
quality of education will be dependent upon the wealth of the State.
South Carolina is becoming wealthy, but it is not a wealthy State. We
have States in our country that will not be able to afford the
investment in education that other States can. We should not have an
educational system with 50 different kinds of educational levels for
our children. We should have a unified process, and that is what we
have been trying to do with the Department of Education.
When the President closes the Department of Education and he then
sends all of that back to the States, we will have people in one State
getting a different quality of education than kids in another State.
That is not what building a unified country is all about. E pluribus
unum; Out of many, one. We ought to have out of many departments of
education one Department of Education that would take on the
responsibility of making sure that all of our children get the kind of
education they deserve.
I will speak just a little bit to what my colleague just talked about
here about DEI. I will say a little bit about DEI here as it relates to
education and to the all-important industry that we have in South
Carolina.
Now, this picture here is a picture that tells you a little bit about
education and DEI. As you can tell, this picture is about the
Revolutionary War. Now, a lot of people talk about Massachusetts and
Virginia and what they did for the Revolutionary War.
Let me tell you something, if you were really educated properly, you
would know that some, if not the most important battles, of the
Revolutionary War took place in South Carolina. If you talk to people
today about a war in South Carolina, they can only talk about the Civil
War.
Yeah, it started there in the Charleston Harbor, but if you go back
and look at the Battle of Charleston, that critical battle that we had
lost twice, General Gates was not a good general, and then George
Washington decided that he would get outside of his comfort zone.
George Washington decided that he would not hold Nathanael Greene's
background up in Rhode Island against him.
He sent Nathanael Greene down to Charleston and Nathanael Greene took
over, won the Battle of Charleston, and changed the direction of the
Civil War.
I love this kind of history. That is why way back in 2001, along with
Congressman John Spratt, I authored a resolution to do a study of the
Revolutionary War sites because I thought it was important for little
children in the public schools of South Carolina to know what role our
State played in the Revolutionary War. That was important to me because
all they could see in their textbooks was what happened in the Civil
War and that is all people knew about.
It took me all the way to 2019 to introduce the legislation, and I
think it got passed in 2022. Twenty years we worked on this and then we
had the big celebration. I am getting to this DEI stuff here.
We had the big celebration there in Camden, South Carolina, where I
graduated from high school, this cannon was fired just about six blocks
from the school I graduated from. The bill I worked on for 20 years
finally became law. We took about 100 pictures that day. Look at this
picture. The Congressman from the Fifth District you can see him
standing there in the center. The Congressman from the Seventh District
standing there in the center. Where is the guy from the Sixth
Congressional District whose bill this was? Well, let me show you where
he is. If you can see through this guy, you can see me. Why is that? It
is called DEI.
They are saying the person who is in charge of taking the picture
decided who he wanted to have credit for it. That is what DEI is all
about.
I don't know what this gentleman is talking about. We all know what
DEI is. We have been having trouble with these lights all day. I hope I
am more than a silhouette back to my constituents tonight. We celebrate
Thomas Edison as the most prolific inventor of American history. Why?
Because we said he invited the lightbulb and that is true. I taught
that when I was teaching history that Edison invented the lightbulb. I
am proud of that.
However, what was not in those textbooks that I was teaching from,
and I had to go to my own book to teach my children properly, because
Thomas Edison couldn't get the lightbulb to work properly. It was not
until Thomas Edison sat down with Lewis Latimer who had invented a
filament.
Lewis Latimer's filament is what made Thomas Edison's lightbulb work.
Then I am hearing from this administration that there is something
wrong, uncomfortable about children learning about Lewis Latimer. Well,
it is not uncomfortable for me to teach about Thomas Edison, why should
it be uncomfortable for you to learn about Lewis Latimer because
together they made the lightbulb work?
Why should we leave Lewis Latimer out of the textbooks and keep
Thomas Edison in? That is what this administration is facilitating.
That is why I saw on the front page of The Washington Post--I think it
was this morning; it might have been yesterday--it was a big story
about Harriet Tubman checking her stuff out of Federal facilities. What
is this about? Why is it that it is uncomfortable for people to learn
about that?
It is not uncomfortable for me. I was very proud of Albert Sabin.
When Albert Sabin finished his professional career at the Medical
University of South Carolina because Albert Sabin discovered how that
little drop of serum on a lump of sugar would help eradicate polio.
I was proud of that. I know Jonas Salk had one too, but I like Albert
Sabin better because Jonas Salk was a shot in the arm. Albert Sabin was
a little lump of sugar. Who would rather get a shot in the arm than a
lump of sugar?
I was proud of Albert Sabin finishing his career at the Medical
University of South Carolina. I don't mind telling people about him. I
don't mind teaching about him. What is wrong with teaching about
Charles Drew, an African American who discovered the method by which we
can refrigerate blood and save it until we would need it. What would we
have done without that discovery? That is what the proper education is
all about.
I mentioned here last week Charity Adams and Arthur Gregg. Now my
colleagues think Arthur Gregg was from Virginia because that is where
he retired, but he was from Florence, South Carolina. Charity Adams,
Columbia, South Carolina, Fort Gregg-Adams.
{time} 2015
Is that DEI because the Army decided that their contributions to the
defense of this country were significant enough to name a facility for
them? Am I going to see them taking their name off of that fort now?
We have taken Jackie Robinson's picture and resume out of the
Department of Defense. I understand they took it back.
Why are you thinking about taking it out in the first place? That is
what education is all about. We are in need of bringing our people
together.
My number one industry in South Carolina happens to be tourism. When
I came to Congress, the two big things in South Carolina were tobacco
and textiles. Today, it is transportation and tourism.
Tourism is big for my State. People are going to come to South
Carolina because of legislation on that southern campaign of the
American Revolution. They will come to South Carolina to visit the
South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. They will come to visit the
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. They will come for those
three national parks we have, including the Congaree National Park.
They
[[Page H1450]]
are going to come visit Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter, the Reconstruction
Era National Historical Park--six big tourist attractions.
I just read the other day that already tourism and visitations at
Myrtle Beach are down over 15 percent already. Why? Because this is the
time of year that the Canadians come. They aren't coming this year.
Why? Because of this foolishness, this big tax that is coming out. We
can call it whatever we want to call it--a tariff. A tariff ain't
nothing but a tax at the border. So, the people in Canada are staying
north of the border rather than coming.
Charleston's tourism is down. That is going to be the case throughout
the South.
We created these opportunities for us to have better economies
because when we have better economies, we will have better schools,
because we will have our children being able to get the education that
they deserve.
I had these prepared comments here, and I apologize to my staff for
the work they did over the weekend, but listening to my colleague
denigrate the history of this country--that is what he is doing,
denigrating the history--we ought to celebrate our history.
All of it wasn't good. My parents lived through a history that I
don't want to see my children and grandchildren live through, but if we
continue down the road that this administration is taking us, that is
what is going to happen.
I am the ninth African American to serve in Congress from South
Carolina, eight before me. The problem is there are 95 years between
number eight and number nine. Why? Because of a history we ought to be
ashamed of and should not ever allow to come back again.
Yet, the policies I am seeing coming out of this administration, the
decisions coming from some of the courts in this country, seem to be
wanting to take us back to that history that I thought we had gotten
beyond.
I am proud to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America, but I am also proud to work in this body with people whose
backgrounds are different from mine, trying to find common ground and
how we can make what this country is all about accessible and
affordable for all of its citizens.
I am proud to be a part of what I consider to be a great country.
There is no need of being made great. We have to make that greatness
accessible to everybody, affordable by everybody. That is what
educating everybody is all about.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for the Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice objection to the Trump Administration's
attacks on our Nation's education system, which I view as part of a
wider attack on the fundamental principle that we all benefit when
people come together, exchange ideas and opinions and learn from each
other in an atmosphere of respect and good will.
At the same time Americans are calling for their leaders to do the
things that are necessary to lower everyday costs so that they can
better their conditions and plan effectively. Their schools--our
greatest laboratories for economic development and individual
advancement--are being targeted.
The repercussions of eliminating the Department of Education would
perpetuate cycles of economic instability for generations of American
families. As a former public schoolteacher, I know very well the value
of education as a tool for upward mobility.
The knowledge and skills our young people learn in our schools are
crucial to securing a good foundation for vocations and professions--
that provide financial security and family stability for decades to
come.
The destruction of the Department of Education is compounded by
another serious threat to our economic future: the indiscriminate, non-
strategic tariffs the president announced on so called ``Liberation
Day'' last week.
With markets tumbling in response to these exorbitant taxes--and
that's what tariffs are, taxes--the only thing Americans are
``liberated'' from is their hard-earned retirement savings.
A small group of my Republican colleagues in the other body has moved
to vote to reclaim their congressional trade authorities in response to
the president's misguided tariff war on our friends in Canada, by
introducing legislation to reclaim Congress's authority in the face of
the president's recklessness. Mr. Speaker, it is time for this body to
act.
At first glance, it may appear that dismantling the Department of
Education and imposing slapdash sky-high tariffs have little in common
beyond their destructiveness. I believe, however, that they both give
us an insight into this Administration's narrow, dark, dangerous
mentality.
Public schools and international trade are both fundamentally rooted
in bringing people together.
Our public schools, at their best, bring children together from a
wide array of backgrounds to learn with and from each other, on a level
playing field, forming, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a
beloved community that will make our society stronger as generations
emerge into adulthood.
International trade, at its best, brings together individuals and
corporations from around the globe to do business with each other on a
level playing field, each contributing their talents and specialties so
that all can be better off.
soybean farmers
You will note, Mr. Speaker, that in these descriptions of public
education and international trade, I included the phrases ``at their
best'' and ``on a level playing field.'' And it is regrettably true
that in recent decades, our public education system and international
trading system have not been at their best, and have not brought
students, workers, and countries together, as effectively, they could
have, to learn and to trade on a level playing field. As a result--
American children have been denied good educations, and American
workers have been denied good jobs.
Yet rather than working together to seek constructive solutions, the
Trump Administration has used these challenges as a pretext for
destruction. And the result will be worse education and a worse
economy.
Without the Department of Education providing resources and guidance,
our public schools will move further from the unifying, excellent
educational institutions that we aspire to have.
It is important to note that the Administration's aim to move the
oversight and authority for administrating education completely to the
states overlooks the lessons of history.
The Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education was created
because of the ongoing discriminatory practices in Southern schools
denying education to African American students and students with
disabilities.
dad's story
the southern campaign
Federal intervention was required to rectify the situation and ensure
that states were complying with the letter and the spirit of Brown v.
Board of Education, which ensured that children of different races
could learn together.
With trade hobbled by confiscatory tariffs, including on some of our
closest allies, American families will lose affordable access to the
items they need to sustain and enrich their lives, and American
business will lose affordable access to the items they need to make the
products that sustain and enrich their employees and their customers.
This trade policy reveals ignorance of history as well, particularly
the history of the catastrophic effects of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs
during the Great Depression.
The common thread of the Trump Administration's misguided approach to
these issues appears to me to be that they do not believe people of
diverse backgrounds can come together in a mutually beneficial way--
whether they are coming together to learn or to engage in commerce. To
the Trump Administration, the world is zero sum, where if there is a
winner there must a loser.
I fundamentally reject that approach, and I believe the American
people are rejecting it as well as they begin to suffer its harmful
consequences. I believe that when people learn together and work
together, all can be made better off.
One area where the Trump Administration's zero-sum worldview is
having a harmful impact in my home state of South Carolina is in the
tourism industry. Tourism is a clear example of people, interacting
with unfamiliar people and places, benefit both the tourists themselves
and the communities they visit.
This Administration's divisiveness is turning people off, and South
Carolinians are suffering the consequences.
The tourism expected this year in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a
popular destination for Canadians subjected to the president's
demeaning rhetoric and policies, is already down 15%.
Expected rates of tourism in Charleston have declined as well.
The success of a long-anticipated seasonal flight directly from
Canada to Charleston airport is now in question as Canadians choose to
vacation outside of the United States in response to the president's
bluster.
You can see here on this poster a prime example of the tourism that
bolsters my state's economy by bringing together people of diverse
backgrounds to learn about our shared history: the Southern Campaign of
the Revolution National Heritage Corridor.
This heritage corridor is one of three in my state along with the
Gullah Geechee Cultural
[[Page H1451]]
Heritage Corridor and the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. We
now have three National Parks, Congaree, Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter,
and the Reconstruction Era National Park. I am also particularly proud
of a historic site in my congressional district--part of the African
American Civil Rights Network--which commemorates the Briggs v. Elliot
case, the first of the five consolidated cases that became Brown v.
Board of Education.
I am particularly proud of this because it was a South Carolinian,
great grandson of a Confederate soldier, J. Waites Waring, who
dissented in Briggs, writing ``They showed beyond a doubt that the
evils of segregation and color prejudice come from early training, . .
. and that it is an evil that must be eradicated.''
These attractions illuminate examples of how tourism enriches people
both financially and educationally by bringing them together with other
people, places, events, and ideas they may not have otherwise
encountered.
indian burial mound
These mutually beneficial interactions sadly appear to be at odds
with this administration's worldview.
It is a sad irony, I have observed over the years, that those with
the outlook held by this administration are those who would benefit the
most from learning from, and interacting with, those different from
them--yet they are the most resistant to doing so and actively seek to
prevent American children from learning these lessons.
I want to share a few such lessons I believe all of us would do well
to remember and heed.
Over the Christmas holiday's, I held a viewing of the historical
drama, The Six Triple Eight. The subject of the film is success of a
regiment of Black female soldiers who overcame extra ordinary obstacles
to eradicate a backlog in mail correspondence to American soldiers on
the front lines of World War II and restore morale by ensuring
servicemembers could communicate with their families back home. The
leader of that group was Chasity Adams. (Gregg/Adam)
We also remember the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen who went valiantly
into battle for the United States in the European theater. They gave a
sense of confidence to their fellow airmen, many of whom would not fly
unless they had the assurance that the Tuskegee Airmen would join them
in the skies.
We also remember the first U.S. mission to orbit the earth and that
the astronaut leading the mission, John Glenn, refused to go up into
space without the final sign off on the orbital mathematics of the
mission by NASA's Katherine Johnson.
These pivotal moments are all instances where the coming together of
people of very different backgrounds had immense benefits for
themselves and for all of society.
It is these types of events that this Administration's policies will
make far less frequent by its dismantling of the Department of
Education and of mutually beneficial international trade.
It is sadly no surprise that this administration seeks to prevent the
teaching and celebrating of these types of moments in our schools and
museums.
I'll close by reiterating the admonition to my Republican colleagues
I shared during this hour last week: it is my hope that fairness and
dignity will prompt them to speak out and act against this
administration's reckless agenda.
If the economic destruction of the last week has a silver lining, it
will hopefully be that it is awakening the American people to the
destructiveness of the administration's divisive zero-sum agenda and
making it clear to my Republican colleagues that the American people
prefer an approach that brings people together.
I often refer to this Hall as America's classroom and in the
classroom and the marketplace, even on travel and vacation--that we
should lift each other up toward a better future for all.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Mr. Clyburn for his
speech.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath),
who represents the State's Seventh District.
Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms.
McClellan) for yielding, and I thank the gentlewoman for anchoring this
Special Order hour tonight on behalf of the CBC.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak out against the Republican assault
on every American's right to a quality public education in this
country.
For decades, families have been promised the right to send their kids
to good public schools, regardless of how much money they make or their
child's disability. The actions of President Trump are a direct threat
to making good on that promise, specifically for children with
disabilities.
In February, parents in Georgia received this exact email, telling
them that year-round counseling and support services meant to assist
them and their disabled child in transitioning from high school to
adulthood have been discontinued--overnight, in the middle of the
school year.
As every parent knows, raising a child takes an incredible amount of
planning and care, especially if your child has unique or special
needs, and even more so if that child is one of color.
We would do anything for our children. The fact that a group of
faceless government officials can go behind a parent's back and cancel
programs that our kids rely on with no explanation is absolutely
unacceptable.
It is more than wrong to pull the rug out from under families in the
middle of the school year during one of the most formative times in a
child's life, after recruiting and convincing them to participate in
this program in the first place.
The Charting My Path for Future Success program was operating in 13
different districts across 11 States. It had actively recruited over
1,000 students with disabilities and their families, as well as 60
teachers, to take part in this program, some of whom uprooted their
entire lives to be involved.
Seeing your child grow up to thrive, that is the goal of every
parent. I have not met one parent in this country who didn't break
their backs to make sure that they were offering their child every
opportunity to be successful, and that takes on another level of
significance when your child has autism, dyslexia, or another condition
that makes learning even more difficult for them. It takes a different
level of commitment, a different level of support, to ensure that they
can reach the potential that all of us want to see fulfilled in our
kids.
That is exactly what this program was doing before President Trump
and Elon Musk actively decided that it was not worth continuing.
All too often it is, unfortunately, sink or swim for disabled
students after high school in America. Students and their families are
left behind despite being promised that their school would get their
child on a path to success and independence.
Programs like these are the difference between students being
successful in adulthood or regressing. They can be the difference
between a lifetime on disability versus a good job that someone can
actually raise a family on.
The President and Secretary McMahon claim that students with
disabilities will not be affected by their plans to gut the Department,
but they already are. Time and time again, they say one thing, and they
do another. It is the American people and our students who are paying
the price in this country every single day.
Emails like this, life-changing services for families being
discontinued at random, this is the Trump-Musk plan for our children,
and this is only the beginning.
The time is now for all Members in this body to speak up, to speak
out, and to fight back against these attacks on our families in each
and every one of our districts. It doesn't make a difference what
district any of our colleagues are representing. All of our children
are being affected. Every single one of us should be willing to stand
up and fight back for our communities and fight back for our students
before it is too late.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia for
speaking.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore),
who represents the State's Fourth District.
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. McClellan for
yielding, and I thank Representatives McClellan and Clyburn for
initiating this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order on education.
Let me just say that I have been so inspired by previous speakers,
including speakers on the other side of the aisle who held their
Special Order before this one.
I rise as a proud granddaughter, daughter, and mother of a public
educator, and I rise today to vehemently oppose the Trump
administration's actions to close the United States Department of
Education.
I rise simultaneously to denounce the President's executive orders
that have
[[Page H1452]]
closed the Smithsonian Institution for African Americans.
I rise to oppose the President's deleting information from websites,
such as to honor people like the Honorable Harriet Tubman.
I rise to oppose book banning.
I rise, Mr. Speaker, to oppose assertions that DEI are ``wicked
ideologies.''
I rise to speak against the notion that diversity, equity, and
inclusion cause division and hostility toward White males.
{time} 2030
I rise to oppose the idea that Pell grants are a part of the remnants
of extremist education that is against, of course, the nuclear family.
I rise against the notion that Pell grants are part of creating this
hostile environment.
I rise, Mr. Speaker, to say that education remains a great equalizer
in our society.
When Congress created the Department of Education in 1979, they did
so noting that: ``Education is fundamental to the development of
individual citizens and the progress of the Nation;
``There is a continuing need to ensure equal access for all Americans
to educational opportunities of high quality, and such educational
opportunities should not be denied because of race, creed, color,
natural origin, or sex.''
Mr. Speaker, I am reminded that one of the Department's most
important responsibilities has been to enforce various civil rights
laws that prohibit discrimination through their Office of Civil Rights.
The OCR is one of the Federal Government's biggest enforcers of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigating thousands of allegations of
discrimination each year which deny African Americans, in particular,
of an opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge and dedicate this poem to our great
leader, the President of the United States, in honor of Maya Angelou,
whose birthday was April 4. I dedicate to them a message from her from
the grave about the importance of African Americans and our education
in this society by Maya Angelou.
It is entitled, ``Still I Rise.''
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt,
But still like dust I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
Because I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns
With the certainty of tides,
Just like folks springing high,
Still I rise.
Did you want to see me broken,
Bowed head and lowered eyes,
Shoulders falling down like tear drops
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I am a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New
Jersey (Mrs. McIver).
Mrs. McIVER. Mr. Speaker, I rise and stand here today not as a
politician, but as a daughter, a mother, and a product of public
schools. I am here because I know what education can do, what it did
for me, what it has done for millions of children across this country,
and I cannot sit quietly as one of the cornerstones of our democracy is
chipped away.
What we are witnessing with the dismantling of the Department of
Education isn't just a bureaucratic decision. It is dangerous. It is a
decision that tells every child in this country that their future
doesn't matter, that their dreams are negotiable, that their ZIP Code
should determine the quality of their education.
Let me be clear, that is not just wrong, it is vicious because when
we give up on our schools, we give up on our communities. When we
defund education, we are defunding hope. We are telling a little girl
in the south ward of Newark, a little boy in the Borough of Roselle, or
a student living in Jersey City that their potential has limits, that
they weren't meant to retire.
However, I know better, because I have seen what happens when we
invest in our kids. I have seen how a great teacher can change the
course of a life. I have seen how a Pell grant can lift up a family. I
have seen young people go from classrooms with broken chairs to
boardrooms and executive suites because someone believed in them.
I have often said that education is the one thing no one can take
away from you, but right now Trump and his billionaire buddies are
trying to take away the very structure that ensures our kids get that
education in the first place.
It isn't about politics. This is about values. This is about who we
are as a country. Do we invest in the next generation or do we abandon
them? We are better than this. Our children deserve better than this.
I cosponsored H.R. 433, the Department of Education Protection Act,
to prohibit the use of congressional appropriated funds for any
reorganization or dismantling of the Department of Education. I urge my
colleagues across the aisle in this room to fight for our schools,
fight for our teachers, fight for every child who dares to dream beyond
their circumstances because they are watching, and they are counting on
us.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from
Connecticut (Mrs. Hayes), who was Teacher of the Year.
Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States signed an
executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. It is very
important for people to understand what calls for the closure of the
Department of Education would mean to local communities.
The Department of Education is responsible for protecting the civil
rights of students, supporting students from low-income backgrounds,
developing and preparing educators, providing resources for English
language learners, collecting statistics on enrollment, staffing, and
crime in schools, and for the $1.6 trillion Federal student loan
program.
Many parents are concerned about disruptions to programs and services
that ensure that the 7.5 million children with disabilities and 49
million students enrolled in K-12 public education get the education
they deserve.
President Donald Trump and his administration do not have the
authority to dismantle the Department of Education. Only Congress has
that authority. An agency created by Congress can only be dismantled by
Congress. However, by firing 50 percent of Federal workers at the
Department of Education and terminating funding for ongoing Federal
education research, the Trump administration is making it difficult for
the Department to accomplish its goals of ensuring equal access to
education for all students.
The Department of Education does not influence public school
curriculum, instruction, or instructional materials. Those decisions
are already made at the local level by local boards of education.
I am trying to state the facts, to lay them out so that the people at
home understand what is happening right now. This is not an emotional
journey. This is not an effort to save a department that does not help
people. It is, in fact, law.
The Department was created by Congress. There are 7.5 million
students who receive special education services that the Department of
Education ensures that they get. You heard Congresswoman McClellan say
that I was a public schoolteacher for 15 years. I worked in a title I
school district. I understand that it is rural communities, low-income
communities, communities that don't have large tax bases that will be
hurt the most. It is my community.
Education is the great equalizer. I don't understand how if we want
to have conversations about making the
[[Page H1453]]
Department more efficient or more effective that isn't happening here
in Congress. That isn't happening in the committees of jurisdiction. I
don't understand how my colleagues are giving away all of our
congressional authority to make sure that the children in our
communities are protected.
Ending funding or eliminating the Department does not end our legal
obligation to provide services to kids who rely on public education.
One of two things is going to happen in your communities: Either other
services will be cut or local property taxes will be raised to
compensate for the lack of Federal funding that communities will
receive.
The thing is, here in Congress we go back and forth between
majorities and minorities. We have policy debates and disputes, but our
kids can't wait 4 years. They can't wait another congressional term.
They can't wait until we figure it out because what we are actually
doing today they needed us to do 20 years ago. There are so many
funding gaps and so many services that students still don't receive.
I hear people talk over and over about the NAEP scores and how
students are not at proficiency or where they need to be. I would
encourage you to disaggregate those scores and look at the lack of
funding over the years, look at the States that have disinvested over
time in education. Look at the communities that don't value public
education. Those are the communities that are dragging those scores
down.
We have so much work to do here in the Congress. Our budgets are a
statement of our values. In the same sentence or at the same press
conference where the President talked about cuts to public education,
he also talked about additional military grants to build aircraft. I
don't understand how as a country we keep increasing military and
defense funding and keep taking away from our children, whether it is
education, food, or basic services that families need. I really don't
understand it. Of all the things that we could be doing here, cuts to
public education should not be one of them.
I will end by just saying, the President and the Secretary of
Education keep promising that there is a plan. I haven't seen anything
articulated. We don't know what happens next. We don't know how these
services will be provided. He says that some things will go to HHS, and
a small business will handle student loans.
For anyone who has actually worked in education, you know that by
April, you are closing out your budgets. You are already planning for
the next year, so we are already too late as far as giving information
to schools as to what they do in September. They need to be ready to go
on day one for the 49 million children who depend on public education.
Still there is no plan. We are weeks into this executive order, and
no plan. Nothing from the Secretary of Education, nothing submitted to
Congress, no concrete plan about who would take over IEPs, special
education services, and the civil rights protections that are
guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. No plan.
Just empty promises from an administration that has been dead set on
cutting public education to the kids who need it most.
The Congressional Black Caucus and House Democratic Members are
committed to continuing the work to make sure that these cuts do not go
unchallenged because if they were as good as the President and his
cohorts, Secretary McMahon and Elon Musk, say they are, then they would
be here before Congress with a detailed plan to share with the American
people of how this will work and what happens next.
Mr. Speaker, I can tell you, coming from a State like Connecticut
where we value education, I want a high-quality education for every
student. Even the kids in Louisiana with some of the lowest test scores
in the Nation and even the kids in our rural communities, I want those
kids to have a good, high-quality public education. I am going to fight
just as hard for them as I will for the kids in my congressional
district.
{time} 2045
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Harrigan). The gentlewoman from Virginia
has 5 minutes remaining.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York
(Ms. Clarke), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Let me first start by thanking Jennifer
McClellan of Virginia and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina for anchoring
this evening's Special Order hour on behalf of the Congressional Black
Caucus.
I rise on this day in opposition to President Trump's unprecedented
and alarming efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. With no
consideration for the will of Congress or the will of the American
people, Donald Trump has commenced an attack on education that we
haven't seen the likes of since the racist segregationist Plessy versus
Ferguson decision declaring separate but equal as an educational
doctrine.
At a time when racial segregation is increasing in our schools to
levels not seen since before the Supreme Court ruled that separate but
equal had no place in the United States, Donald Trump's actions will
not only make our schools more segregated and less equal but they will
put quality education out of reach for countless young Americans today
and in the years to come.
No matter what justification the President gives, we know the real
reason he is tearing apart the Department of Education. That is to
steal money from public schools and funnel it into private ones that
don't care about teaching our kids, only indoctrinating them into the
cult of Trump.
Mr. Speaker, make no mistake. These attacks on the Department of
Education are deeply, deeply unpopular in every corner of the country.
In fact, two-thirds of Americans oppose them. They oppose them because
families from all walks of life rely on the Department of Education to
meet their children's needs.
Districts with high rates of poverty depend on Title I funding to
serve their students, just as parents of children with disabilities or
special needs depend on IDEA funding to give their kids the care they
deserve.
In New York's Ninth District alone, the administration has already
clawed back $4 million in funds that our schools were entitled to. That
figure is as much as $300 million across our State.
Because of Trump's war on education, classroom sizes will balloon.
Teachers' recruitment will plummet. Higher education will be
inaccessible for thousands of students. Money will be taken from
students with disabilities and special needs and given to the
President's allies.
Let's be clear. The President's actions represent a disturbing new
step in his crusade against public education and all it represents. I
reject his war against education, just as I will reject whatever bill
comes before Congress to further damage the Department of Education.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to end where I began and that is
with the story of my mother who lived to be 94.
She was the third youngest of 14 children in the Gulf Coast of
Mississippi where the only school available to her was the Catholic
church because Mississippi did not deem Black children important enough
to educate. She wanted more than the life that was available to her
siblings, her parents, her great-grandparents, and her grandparents.
She had to move to go to high school.
She ended up running the Federal TRiO programs at Virginia State
University to ensure that a little girl, whether she is in Petersburg,
Virginia, or a little boy on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, would have
the same access to an education, no matter their parents' financial
situation, no matter the obstacles in their way. As a mother of two
children in public school who has spent almost 20 years in public
service, I have dedicated my life to making sure that every child has
that same opportunity.
The Department of Education doesn't run schools. They don't set the
curriculum. They fill the gaps that State and local governments have
been unwilling or unable to.
Without the Department of Education, there is going to be a little
girl
[[Page H1454]]
somewhere in this country as brilliant as my mother was, as dedicated
as my father was to public education, as passionate about it as I am
now, who will not be able to succeed because their school lacks a
quality teacher or a principal who knows what he is doing or the school
lacks the resources to provide a student with disabilities the tools
they need to succeed.
Every Member of Congress in this body was privileged enough to get a
good education to get here, but not every child we represent has that
same ability. The Congressional Black Caucus, as the conscience of
Congress, will fight for every child no matter their ZIP Code, race,
creed, or background to get that education.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your attention tonight and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the
following:
opening remarks from civil rights forum on trump's attacks on students,
workers, and families
We have seen this Administration attack diversity, equity, inclusion,
and accessibility in the federal government and, by extension, in
schools, workplaces, and public services and research--attacks on civil
rights that we have not seen since the 1960's.
DEI, regrettably, has been attacked by the Republicans and this
Administration to erase contributions and accomplishments of so many
Americans. We have seen the Administration remove references to Jackie
Robinson's military participation. References to women in health care
research or women who served at the CIA have been erased. References to
the plane which carried the first nuclear bomb in World War II, the
Enola Gay, because artificial intelligence flagged it as a reference to
the LGBTQ+ community, so they wanted that erased along with everything
else. And now, they are attempting to ``rewrite history'' with the
latest executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institute.
Specifically, the Executive Order singles out the African American
History Museum for its ``corrosive ideology.'' Before these relatively
recent attacks, diversity itself had been the goal--in fact, the Brown
v. Board of Education decision in 1954 said that segregation of
children in public schools, solely on the basis of race, denies the
children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even
though the physical facilities and tangible factors may be equal.
Regrettably President Trump, during his last administration, appointed
dozens of judges who, during their confirmation hearings, refused to
say whether Brown v. Board was properly decided.
Last week, the President signed an executive order to dismantle the
Department of Education--a department that was created to ensure that
students' civil rights were protected. The Department actually does
very little in education--most of its work is civil rights,
guaranteeing rights of low-income students. Title I of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act: money in low-income areas to offset the
effect of funding education with the real estate tax, guaranteeing that
low-income areas will be at a disadvantage, so we put money in Title I.
ED helps low-income students, racial minorities, dealing with
achievement gaps, English as a Second Language, and students with
disabilities. On higher education, they deal with access, Pell grants,
and student loans. Some of the proponents of the elimination of the
Department of Education campaign on the slogan of `states' rights.' We
remember that campaign was used in the 1960's by those who wanted to
maintain segregation.
The Trump Administration's war on diversity, equity, and inclusion
programs are not just limited to education. It prompted a purge of
federal agencies of employees who supported DEI initiatives,
culminating in the unprecedented firing of EEOC Commissioners. Without
their presence, the EEOC actually lacks a quorum and is essentially
unable to protect the rights of workers whose rights under Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act have been violated.
Similarly, President Trump rescinded Executive Order 11246, which has
been the cornerstone of civil rights protections in federal contracting
since the 1960's. This Executive Order ensures that federal contractors
must take affirmative action to ensure that they are not discriminating
against workers based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or national origin. These actions ensured
that taxpayer dollars were not being used to fund discrimination.
But despite the President's reckless actions and the acquiescence of
congressional Republicans, we need to assure the public that many are
still fighting for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Now, this is not just a fight in Congress. That is why we have asked
these organizations here today to remind us why civil rights need to be
protected and to tell us what they are specifically doing to combat
those attacks.
Let's be clear: We are not here to do what I call ``celebrating the
problem.'' We know what this Administration has done, and we know what
this Administration is doing. We want to let the public know what we
are specifically doing to fight back, and know how the public can join
into that fight.
opening statement at education and workforce full committee hearing
entitled, ``the state of american education''
I would first like to start with the elephant in the room. There is
current reporting that President Trump plans to issue an executive
order to eliminate critical programs at the Department of Education and
call on Congress to eliminate the entire department. But then I recall
that that's exactly what Project 2025 said the president should do--it
said that on page 319 of Project 2025.
The irony is not lost on me that we are here to discuss the ``state
of American education'' while the current Administration is actively
discussing how to dismantle the main federal agency responsible for
ensuring safe, quality education for all students. According to polls,
the majority of voters oppose the abolition of the Department of
Education. I also know that I, and every Democrat, will do what we can
to ensure the Department continues.
Now to the issue at hand. As reflected in the latest National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, schools are struggling
to make up for lost time in the classroom following the COVID-19
pandemic. Achievement gaps, which existed before the pandemic, have
widened. According to that assessment, math and reading gaps between
higher- and lower-performing students continue to rise, as Black
students continue to be more than 10 points behind their white peers in
all subjects.
In 2021, Democrats passed the largest one-time investment in
education in the history of the United States in the American Rescue
Plan Act (ARPA), to provide schools with the resources they needed to
reopen classrooms safely and make up for lost time due to the pandemic.
Without this investment, we would undoubtedly be in a worse situation
today. However, the American Rescue Plan Act was only a band-aid on the
larger issue of underfunding in schools. It is abundantly clear that we
need sustained federal investment over time to overcome decades of
underfunding.
Unfortunately, instead of investing in our children, Republicans are
stuck on proposals that will only create more challenges for students.
Consider that the first education bill we considered this Congress
targets--indeed bullies--transgender youth. Also, my Republican
colleagues have misrepresented programs intended to expand diversity,
equity, and inclusion as a problem in education. Republicans have
threatened to ban books, police bathrooms, and take away funds from
communities that need them most. Simply put, the Administration is
promoting a warped version of DEI--discrimination, erasure, and
inequity.
This all serves to distract Americans so that they will not notice
the privatization of the American education system with taxpayer funds
going to private schools, the resegregation of public schools, the
erosion of services for students with disabilities, cuts to the student
loan program, and distracts from the price of eggs going up. And while
some folks may be hollering about imagined ``DEI problems,'' many in
the public will fail to notice how the taxpayers' money is being
siphoned away from public education and the student loan program to pay
for tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected.
And so, Mr. Chairman, I know that we can all agree that every student
in this country should have access to a safe, welcoming, and well-
funded learning environment. That begins with eliminating disparities
in education with sustained federal funding. This Congress, Committee
Democrats will reintroduce legislation such as:
the Rebuild America's Schools Act, which would make a critical
investment to repair and rebuild school facilities--particularly in
high-need areas.
the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, which would restore the
private right of action for students, parents, and local civil rights
groups to bring discrimination claims based on disparate impact under
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
And the Strength in Diversity Act, which would provide resources to
states or school districts that want to voluntarily develop plans to
integrate their schools.
We have to take steps to lower the cost of higher education for
students and families. To that end, we'll also reintroduce the Lowering
Obstacles to Achievement Now (LOAN) Act, which would lower the cost of
college for current and future student borrowers and their families by
making critical reforms to the student aid system, including doubling
the Pell Grant, improving the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program,
and making loans more affordable and accessible.
Allow me, to that end, to promise to my colleagues and students
across the country, that we will not go along with programs to
dismantle our education system. We will fight any
[[Page H1455]]
attempt to dismantle the Department. We don't know what the plan will
be, but count on our opposition to any plan that will abolish the
Department of Education and the programs in it. To that end, Democrats
will always be for the wellbeing of students, teachers, and parents
across the country.
____________________