[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 122 (Wednesday, July 16, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H3325-H3326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         IN DEFENSE OF CHILDREN

  (Ms. Simon of California was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Ms. SIMON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in defense of every child in 
this Nation who deserves to enter into a classroom and be treated with 
dignity, care, and respect.
  In writing these remarks, I thought of my kindergarten teacher, Ms. 
Jasko at Claire Lilienthal Elementary School in San Francisco.
  On my first day of kindergarten--I remember it very, very clearly--my 
last name starts with an s, so I sat at the back of the classroom and 
kept my head down. I was not verbacious then.
  Within about 5 minutes of the class starting--and there was a lot of 
chatter of little children--Ms. Jasko noticed that my head was bowed. 
She brought me up to the classroom board, and she saw clearly that I 
was a child with an acute visual impairment. She kissed me on my 
forehead and asked me to sit by her desk where I sat for the rest of 
the year. She understood me. I did not have to fight for the right to 
learn in that class. I sat next to the board.
  This week, the Supreme Court handed the President of the United 
States the power to gut the Department of Education without 
congressional approval. Nearly 1,400 Federal staff at the Department of 
Education may be fired, including those tasked with protecting the 
civil rights and the human dignity of students.

                              {time}  1100

  The Court's decision sets a dangerous precedent as it tells the 
executive branch that it can effectively dismantle the very agencies 
that Congress has created without any oversight.
  Let us remember why the Department of Education exists in the first 
place. The Department of Education was not a bureaucratic creation. It 
wasn't an organization developed just to create more staff salaries.
  The Department of Education was a victory secured through the long 
and

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hard march of civil rights in this country. It was built to ensure that 
children in every part of this country could have a real chance. It was 
not to standardize curriculum but to standardize the worth of children. 
It was to guarantee that, no matter your background, your race, your 
ability, your identity, where you lived, or who you prayed to, the 
Federal Government would have the backs of every student in this 
country.
  If this decision stands, the Department of Education's Office for 
Civil Rights will be shattered and gutted, which means that, within 
this office, which was created and implemented to investigate when 
students in this country were not treated respectfully or with dignity, 
that schools would potentially not be required to provide 
accommodations for students with disabilities.
  Mr. Speaker, for every mother fighting for their child with autism, 
for every parent fighting for their child with a visual or intellectual 
disability, and for every child who rolls in with their wheelchair 
every single day, mighty with pride and glory that they, too, can learn 
and be integrated, there may not be any Federal protections to make 
sure that they are respected.
  Rapes and sexual assaults on college campuses may no longer be 
investigated. When the cities don't investigate those sexual assaults, 
the Federal Government--particularly the Office for Civil Rights under 
the Department of Education--took on that role.
  Shame on us.
  National standards for protecting LGBTQ students, because they are 
students and are children, will go away. Native students, Black 
students, Latino students, students navigating poverty, and students 
who have disabilities may no longer have the Federal support that they 
so deserve. This is a betrayal. It is cruel, and it is a deep attack on 
our children.
  How will the United States of America compete academically, 
economically, or morally if the Federal Government walks away from its 
most sacred responsibility to guarantee basic fairness in education?
  We cannot meet the demands of the future by returning to a past--
returning to a past--where only the privileged are protected. The work 
of the Department of Education was never about charity. It has always 
been about justice.
  As bell hooks taught us in ``Teaching to Transgress,'' teaching is 
about liberation. Education is about more than information. It is a 
practice of freedom.

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