[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19728]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 11, 2001

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3061) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
     Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2002, and for other purposes:

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I rise to bring 
attention to the need for an additional $5.1 million to the Office of 
Civil Rights.
  The mission of the Office for Civil Rights is to ensure equal access 
to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the 
nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights. They serve student 
populations facing discrimination and the advocates and institutions 
promoting systemic solutions to civil rights problems. An important 
responsibility is resolving complaints of discrimination. The Office 
for Civil Rights enforces five Federal statutes that prohibit 
discrimination in education programs and activities that receive 
Federal financial assistance. Discrimination on the basis of race, 
color, and national origin is prohibited by Title VI of the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964; sex discrimination is prohibited by Title IX of the 
Education Amendments of 1972; discrimination on the basis of disability 
is prohibited by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and age 
discrimination is prohibited by the Age Discrimination Act of 1975. The 
Department of Justice also has delegated OCR responsibility for 
enforcing Title 11 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The 
civil rights laws enforced by OCR extend to all state education 
agencies, elementary and secondary school systems, colleges and 
universities, vocational schools, proprietary schools, state vocational 
rehabilitation agencies, libraries, and museums that receive U.S. 
Department of Education funds.
  Though the Office of Civil Rights is so important, the current budget 
does not increase its funding.
  While public schools remain more integrated today than they were 
prior to the civil rights movement, they are resegregating at 
accelerating rates and this spells trouble for minority students. A 
recent study by The Civil Rights Project of Harvard University found 
that segregation within the nation's schools has returned. During the 
1990s, classrooms grew more segregated. Now, more than seventy percent 
of Black students attend schools with predominantly minority student 
bodies, which is a sizable jump from sixty-three percent in 1980, and 
nearly a third of Black children attend schools that are ninety to one 
hundred percent minority.
  Mr. Chairman, this new segregation certainly undermines the 
educational prospects of not only Black, but all American children. Now 
is not the time to allow a retrenchment of segregation in education. I 
implore that we appropriate more funding to the Office of Civil Rights 
in the Department of Education in order to provide it with the tools 
needed to reverse this new found segregation.
  Mr. Chairman, we cannot wait another year, five years, or ten years 
to appropriate additional funds to the Office for Civil Rights. I 
believe that we know more now than we did a month ago the affect 
visible isolation and separation can have on our country. Let us not 
ignore the visible segregation that is going on in our education 
system. In an effort to leave no child behind, I request my colleagues 
vote in favor of this amendment to address this new segregation now.

                          ____________________