Dismantling the Department of Education

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut for her relentless attention on this issue.

First, when we talk about protecting the Department of Education, I think we have to first--when we talk about dismantling the Department of Education, we keep saying we are going to return education to the States. Education never left the States. It has always been with the States.

What the Department of Education has done has been civil rights. The Department of Education has nothing to do with curriculum, teacher qualifications, or the courses needed to graduate from high school. All of those are local and State.

The Department of Education's Federal interests is civil rights beginning in 1954 when the Supreme Court decreed that we could not maintain so-called separate but equal schools.

In Brown v. Board of Education, the court said: ``It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity . . . is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.''

The court then concluded that segregation of students by race denies the students of a minority race of an equal educational opportunity because separate facilities are inherently unequal.

That is what the Supreme Court did in 1954. They didn't tell the State what they would teach. They just said students can't be segregated.

In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act addressed inequality in education. Title I addressed it by putting money into low-income areas. We fund education with the real estate tax, guaranteeing that low-income areas won't be at a disadvantage, so title I comes in with money for low-income areas.

Other provisions in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act talk about students with disabilities and making sure students with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education. It also supports those for whom English is a second language. It eliminates racial achievement gaps. That is what the Federal role in education is, not what the courses are.

With higher education, Title IX talks about equality of the activities of men and women. We don't tell colleges what to teach, but we just make sure we have Pell grants and student loans so that people can go.

When we dismantle the Department of Education, we are not returning anything to the States. We are just eliminating civil rights. It is no surprise that the first victim in the dismantling of the Department has been the Office of Civil Rights. The Office of Civil Rights enforces civil rights.

The big, ugly bill that they passed earlier this year cuts back on student loans and Pell grants so fewer students can attend. Other actions have been limiting equal opportunity in education.

That is why the dismantling of the Department of Education is so reprehensible. It is not because we are so-called returning anything to the States. It is because we are dismantling civil rights.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut for all of her work and for her relentless attention on this issue and making sure people understand what is going on.

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