Congressional Tri-Caucus Chairs Oppose Efforts to Undermine Public Education

Congressional Tri-Caucus Chairs Oppose Efforts to Undermine Public Education

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Chairs of the Congressional Tri-Caucus – composed of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – released the following joint statement in opposition to H.J. Res. 57, which would undermine the Department of Education’s authority to implement and enforce key provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA):

“H.J. Res. 57, the joint resolution to undermine implementation of the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), is another step in the Republican attack on public education and enforcement authority of the Department of Education. First, President Trump nominates a champion of privatization who is unfamiliar and unwilling to enforce key civil rights protections for students. Now, Congressional Republicans are ripping apart regulation to guide implementation of the most important equity provisions of our nation’s new K-12 law.

“As leaders of the Congressional Asian Pacific American, Black, and Hispanic Caucuses we fought to couple ESSA’s unprecedented state and local flexibility over school accountability and improvement with strong federal protections for our most vulnerable students. Without the stability and clarity provided through regulation, plan development stops, systems halt, and students and teachers lose. While this regulation reflects the consensus of the education and civil rights community, it is within the purview of the new Republican administration to reexamine and amend it as they see fit. However, rather than take this responsible approach to implementing the new law, Republicans have chosen to put politics before students.

“H.J. Res. 57 would leave key provisions of the law completely unregulated indefinitely, leaving state systems that serve our nation’s more than 50 million public school students in limbo and important civil rights obligations unfulfilled. Faithful implementation of ESSA must honor both the bipartisan intent of Congress and the longstanding civil rights legacy of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This reckless measure flies in the face of both. For these reasons, we firmly oppose H.J. Res. 57.”