Education
Democrats are committed to ensuring all Americans have access to a high-quality education. If our nation is going to remain the world’s leader, we must not lag our global competitors in education. Democrats are focused on making higher education and skills training more accessible, reducing high school dropout rates, and providing students with the support they need to secure well-paying jobs. From day one, the Trump Administration has undermined protections for and disinvested in America’s students. President Trump’s budget proposes to cut teacher training and literacy programs and reduces funding for the schools and communities most in need. Congressional Republicans have also proposed extreme funding bills that dramatically cut education and job training programs, threatening our ability to build a competitive workforce and help more Americans find good-paying work. Democrats are fighting to protect families from these harmful cuts and have a strong record of making investments that will strengthen education. Democrats have increased Pell grants, cut red tape in the loan process, and made it easier to repay student loans once students join the workforce. Democrats also enacted a major reform bill that ended wasteful taxpayer subsidies to big banks and directed the savings to helping students instead. Democrats also made record investments in community colleges and minority-serving higher education institutions.
Good afternoon. We are here at a moment both joyous and mournful.
Sixty years ago tomorrow, the Supreme Court issued its historic, unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ending the shameful practice of legal segregation in schools throughout our country.
I was proud to vote for H.R. 10, the Success and Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Act, which passed the House today with a bipartisan vote of 360-45. This legislation ensures quality, equity, and transparency in the federal Charter School Program.
This morning’s headline says it all. Instead of focusing on bipartisan legislation this week as originally intended, the GOP just couldn’t help themselves. Now the focus is on their partisan bills – which, as National Journal points out, is overshadowing the bipartisan charter schools bill on the Floor this week.
As Budget Chairman Paul Ryan continues his “poverty messaging tour” today, with both a Budget hearing and CBC meeting, your ever-helpful Democratic Whip press shop put some questions together for you to ask him. There’s a lot to choose from, including his budget that disinvests in the majority of critical programs that prevent poverty and help people get out of it, and a voting record that doesn’t reflect an interest in ending poverty. Here are just a few questions to get you started:
“I was pleased to join President Obama today at Buck Lodge Middle School in Adelphi, Maryland, as he spoke about his Administration’s ConnectED public-private partnership to connect our nation’s classrooms to the internet and deploy the latest technologies to help our children acquire the skills that will set them on the path to future success
“The signing into law of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act today represents a significant victory for students and their families,” Whip Hoyer said.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) and Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) released the following statements following Senate passage of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act
“I am very pleased that the Senate unanimously passed the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act today – legislation I have been pushing the Congress to adopt for several years. This bill, which I introduced with Rep. Dr. Phil Roe and which passed the House earlier this year, will save lives and provide parents and educators with peace of mind that students with food allergies will be safe at school.
“By approving the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, which will save lives by ensuring that students suffering from food allergies have access to life-saving epinephrine, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee today took an important step toward its enactment into law.