[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.

                          ____________________