Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. Chairman, I will yield to you under almost every circumstance.
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Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I rise today to speak in opposition to the nomination of Kenneth Marcus to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. One of the most critical functions of the Department of Education is the role in enforcing Federal civil rights and upholding the protection of students' civil rights in schools.
The Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Education is a particularly important instrument in enforcing civil rights in schools, protecting those precious rights of our children, and ensuring that schools provide students with access to equal educational opportunities and a nondiscriminatory environment in which to learn. It is an idea we have in our country that it is fundamental that we have a level playing field and abundant opportunity for all kids, no matter what their background is.
The continued need for this office is clear. In fact, during the Obama administration, the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Education handled 76,000 complaints over 8 years and issued dozens of policy guidance documents to help schools better protect and preserve civil rights of students.
In the last year alone, or year and a half, we have seen what is clearly an abdication of this leadership in the Trump administration and what that has meant for the protection of civil rights for our country's children and for our country's students. We have seen an Office for Civil Rights that has rolled back protections for LGBTQ students, an office that has rolled back protections for students with disabilities, and an office that is set on gutting the very mission of the office itself, which is to protect all of our students from discrimination and empower them with equal opportunities to succeed.
The confirmation of Kenneth Marcus would be another blow to the civil rights of our students. Mr. Marcus is someone who, in his record and in his testimony to my colleagues on the Senate HELP Committee, has demonstrated that he possesses at best a disturbing apathy and at worst a wanton disregard for the importance, if not urgency, of protecting the rights of our kids in school.
When Mr. Marcus was asked by Senator Murray to name an example of something--anything--that Donald Trump had said or done when it comes to discrimination or civil rights that he disagrees with, and Mr. Marcus could not name any area of disagreement. He couldn't find a single disagreement in the way that Donald Trump demeaned Americans with disabilities or how the President has spoken about Mexicans or even the way the President has issued policies that attack the rights of Muslims or the rights of LGBTQ Americans. There was no disagreement mentioned whatsoever.
When he was asked during his confirmation hearing if as Assistant Secretary he would intervene in an instance where Black students in a school district were receiving lower quality teachers, fewer books, fewer AP classes, and fewer educational resources than White students, one would expect his answer to have been: Yes, I would intervene. Yes, I would stand up for equality. Instead, Mr. Marcus refused to say that he would step in in such a hypothetical circumstance.
When Senator Murphy asked about disparities in school districts that were suspending or expelling five times as many Black students for the same set of behaviors compared to White students, instead of just saying the obvious thing--that this is wrong, that the same behavior necessitates the same disciplinary action--instead of saying something as simple as that, Mr. Marcus went on to say this:
``I believe that disparities of that size are grounds for concern, but my experience says that one needs to approach each compliant, or compliance review, with an open mind and a sense of fairness to find out what the answers are. I will tell you that I have seen what appeared to be inexcusable disparities that were the result of paperwork errors, they just got the numbers wrong.''
I don't know how much of the data on this issue of disciplinary inequality Mr. Marcus has seen, but it is abundantly clear that for someone who wants to be in this position, they should understand the crisis we have with discipline in this country. The data has shown that even in preschool--from the age of 4 years old--Black preschool kids are 3.6 times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than White preschool kids. Again, that is also for the same infraction.
This is not about getting the numbers wrong. This is about being aware of a problem we have in this country that fuels the school-to- prison pipeline. It is a problem that is so severe that I fought in a bipartisan way to get an amendment about school expulsions in the Every Student Succeeds Act. This is a problem that is so severe that in 2014 the Department of Education issued guidance clarifying that schools must administer discipline without discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The guidance provided important information and support for schools to create a safer, more inclusive environment. We know this problem is not going away, because just last month a new report from the Government Accountability Office concluded that Black students, boys, and students with disabilities were still significantly overrepresented in disciplinary action.
What we need is a Department of Education that is going to stand up for kids on problems that we know exist. I was stunned that this is a candidate who doesn't even acknowledge the urgency in protecting LGBTQ kids. And at a time of such crisis, Secretary Betsy DeVos continues to fail to protect the rights of all of our students, just this week, she called discrimination against LGBTQ students in schools ``an issue for Congress and the courts to settle,'' abdicating any responsibility.
That is unacceptable, and I don't understand. We have children who are literally under attack. We face a crisis in this country when it comes to LGBTQ youth. This is not an argument over facts. The facts are clear: LGBT youths face a stunning level of prejudice and discrimination inside and outside of schools, starting at a young age. We know that LGBT youths are two times more likely than their heterosexual peers to be physically assaulted in school. LGBT youths are four times as likely to attempt suicide.
According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 34 percent of gay and lesbian youth students were bullied on school property, and 13 percent report not going to school because of fear for their safety. This kind of harassment has no place in our classrooms or schools or anywhere in the United States. It is far too common, from discriminating disciplinary practice to physical violence against our kids, and we have work to do in this country to keep all children safe, to treat all children equally, to give every kid a fair shot in schools to make it and thrive. Yet we are trying to elevate someone to one of the most significant positions in our land to protect children who has a disregard and an apathy toward the compelling and continuing problems in our schools.
When I think about the role of the Federal Government in protecting children, I think about a picture that, as soon as I walk out of my office, the picture is there, and it is that picture from Norman Rockwell of Ruby Bridges trying to walk to school, at the age of 6, to become the first Black child to attend a White elementary school in the South. The photo of her--and the famous painting--is jarring when you see it. It is a reminder to me every day when I leave my office about the roles and responsibilities we have in this body. The hate that was being spewed on her--Ruby Bridges--was plainly evident.
I am telling you, if you visit schools right now and talk to some of our children who are being bullied and intimidated, they can speak to that kind of hate as well. You can still feel the pain and hatred echoing from our past, and you can see it. You can see it echoing in our present. She was determined, and, most importantly, she was not alone. At the age of 6, walking to school, Ruby Bridges walked not alone but, as Norman Rockwell's picture captures, she walked with Federal Marshals, and they stood with her. She was not alone. She had government folks who said: Your rights are my rights. Your future is my future. We pledge an oath to be a nation of liberty and nation not for some but for all--that ``injustice anywhere,'' as King said, ``is a threat to justice everywhere.''
The Federal Government alone is not enough to educate our kids. It is about local communities that keep them safe. It is about those soccer coaches. It is about the drama teacher. It is about the English teacher. It is about the love and the kindness and the nurturing environment that is the common standard in all of our schools in America in every State. We have seen from history that there is a role for us to play in keeping folks safe. There are aberrations in our country where hatred still thrives, where discrimination still exists, where there is a role for us to play, and we can't surrender that role.
We can't retreat from our vigilance in protecting every child in America. That is why the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Education are so critical and must be led by someone who understands our history and understands the urgent work that still needs to be done. We need a person in this role who is committed to every single child no matter who they are and a person who sees within that child their truth, their divinity, their limitless potential, their promise, and how we as a nation need them to succeed.
We have a long way to go. There is work still to do. Children in this country who are hurting now need champions in positions of high office. That is why I oppose the nomination of Mr. Marcus. He is not the person, by his own testimony, who sees our children, who will protect all of our children, who understands their crises, and hears their cries. I will be voting against his nomination.
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