Parents Bill of Rights Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the underlying bill and my amendment to the Parents Bill of Rights Act. The amendment would require public schools to inform parents on decisions to terminate college-credit courses, including dual-enrollments and advanced placement courses.

As the cost of colleges and universities continues to skyrocket, many students depend on these highly affordable high school college credit courses. It is an essential tool for students to reduce their time and their total cost in attending college.

Case in point, I graduated from college in 1983, and the total tuition to attend Colgate University was $12,000. Today, it is nearly $80,000 for room and board and tuition, so this is a way to try to ameliorate that problem with many students who want to seek college admission and college credit.

However, unfortunately, the woke, radical leftwing school administrators in States such as New York are working to terminate gifted and talented programs, including college credit courses, in their misguided attempt to further their far-left social equity agenda. These administrators don't actually want equal opportunity, they want to tear down our top-performing students to promote their diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda. This is simply wrong.

I have heard from parents across my district who have actually moved out of their own homes to find schools where their children can attend that have these college credit courses offered.

Parents should have the right to know if these important programs are terminated and if they are being eliminated in the name of equity. We should be forming education policy that allows children to flourish and not one that is preoccupied with sabotaging those children who choose to succeed academically.

At the end of the day, sunlight is often the best disinfectant, and I hope the transparency offered by this amendment ends this harmful attempt at the far left's social engineering.

I am grateful to the chair, Dr. Foxx, for her support of my amendment, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment that is much needed today for our parents to have equal rights.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source