'Returning To A Past Where Only The Privileged Are Protected': Lateefah Simon Decries Education Cuts

During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA) ripped into the Trump Administration's cuts to the Department of Education.

Transcript

00:00the House for five minutes and to revise and extend my remarks. Without objection.

00:10Mr. Speaker, I rise today in defense of every child in this nation who deserves to enter

00:20into a classroom and be treated with dignity, care, and respect. In writing these remarks,

00:28I thought of my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Jasko, at Claire Lilienthal Elementary School in San

00:36Francisco. On my first day of kindergarten, and I remember it very, very clearly, my last name

00:45starts with an S. And so I sat at the back of the classroom and I kept my head down. I was not

00:53verbacious then. Within about five minutes of the class starting and there was a lot of chatter of

01:00little children, Ms. Jasko noticed that my head was bowed and she brought me up to the class room

01:08board and she saw clearly that I was a child with an acute visual impairment. She kissed me on my

01:18forehead and asked me to sit by her desk where I sat for the rest of the year. She understood me.

01:25I did not have to fight for the right to learn in that class. I sat next to the board. This week,

01:34the Supreme Court handed the president of the United States the power to gut the Department of

01:40Education without congressional approval. Nearly 1,400 federal staff of the Department of Education

01:50may be fired, including those tasked with protecting the civil rights and the human dignity of students.

02:00The court's decision sets a dangerous precedent as it tells the executive branch that it can

02:06effectively dismantle the very agencies that Congress was created without any oversight.

02:14Let us remember why the Department of Education exists in the first place. The Department of Education

02:20was not a bureaucratic creation. It wasn't an organization just developed just because to create more staff salaries.

02:30The Department of Education was a victory secured through the long and hard march of civil rights.

02:37In this country, it was built to ensure that children in every part of this country, to make sure that they

02:44could have a real chance not to standardize curriculum, but to standardize the worth of children, to guarantee

02:52that no matter your background, your race, your ability, your identity, where you lived,

02:58or who you prayed to, the federal government would have the back of every student in this country.

03:05If this decision stands, the Department of Education's civil rights, the Office of Civil Rights,

03:13will be shattered and guttered, which means in this office, created and implemented and investigated

03:20when these students in this country were not treated not only with respect, with dignity.

03:25That would mean schools would not be potentially required to provide accommodations for students

03:31with disabilities. So for every mother fighting for your child with autism, for every parent fighting

03:37for your child with a visual or intellectual disability, for every child who is rolling in with your wheelchair

03:44every single day, mighty with pride and glory, that you too can learn and be integrated.

03:50There may not be any federal protections to make sure that you are respected. Rapes and sexual assaults

03:57on college campuses may no longer be investigated. When the cities don't investigate those sexual assaults,

04:03the federal government, particularly the Office of Civil Rights under the Department of Education,

04:09took on that role. Shame on us. National standards for protecting LGBTQ students, because they are students,

04:17they are children, will go away. Native students and black students and Latino students and students

04:22navigating poverty. And students who have disabilities may no longer have the federal support that they

04:32so deserve. This is a betrayal. It is cruel and it is attack. It is a deep attack on our children. How will the

04:39United States of America compete academically, economically, or morally if the federal government

04:46walks away from its most sacred responsibility to guarantee basic fairness and education? We cannot

04:54meet the demands of the future by returning to a past, returning to a past where only the privileged are

05:03protected. The work of the Department of Education was never about charity. It's always been about justice.

05:12And as bell hooks taught us, teaching is about liberation. Education is about more than information.

05:24It is a practice of freedom. And I yield back. The gentlelady yields back.