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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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(7/8/00 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
While the President and Congress struggle over the federal commitment to American education, Baltimore welcomes people of conscience from across the country for this week's 91st Annual Convention of the NAACP. We who belong to and support the organization must send the Congress a clear and convincing message:"America cannot achieve a color-blind society with an educational system that is both separate and unequal. Deeds and tangible support will determine whether the leadership of this country is serious about achieving justice in America - not words nor ideological compassion alone."
The struggle to achieve equal educational opportunity remains the foremost civil rights challenge of our time.
W.E.B. DuBois accurately predicted that race would be the dominant issue of the last century. In this century, however, Americans are divided by socioeconomic class as well as race - a class division determined largely by unequal educational opportunity.
As African Americans, we have struggled to build the largest middle class in our history. Nevertheless, an appalling number of African American children continue to live in poverty. Unjust funding and taxation policies deny our children full educational opportunity, consigning them by the millions to the most crippling segregation of all B the segregation of poverty.
Black children are not alone in the educational ghettos of America. Poor children born into every racial and ethnic group join them in crying out for the "liberty and justice for all" they have been promised.
"We are talented and valuable, too," they proclaim. "Help us create our own place in this nation of justice to which we pledge our allegiance."
America's children look to us to help them win their civil rights struggle.
We are the veterans - and the beneficiaries - of Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham and Baltimore. We understand that the national debate about federal funding for educational programs is more than an argument about means (about targeted programs or block grants).
The political struggle in Washington over federal funding of programs that offer poor children a better education is about ends.
Federal support to local school districts for more teachers and smaller classes - as well as programs like Title I that can and do provide a measure of justice for impoverished children - will determine the degree to which America's leaders are truly prepared to guarantee equal educational opportunity for all children.
In 1998, for example, the Clinton-Gore Administration and Congressional Democrats proposed a plan to hire 100,000 new, qualified teachers to reduce most elementary school classes to fewer than 18 students per teacher. In the budgets for Fiscal Years 1999 and 2000, the Congress partially funded the plan.
On June 14 of this year, however, House Republicans passed a Fiscal Year 2001 education spending bill (H.R. 4577) by a party-line vote (217-214) that would eliminate the successful class size reduction initiative, deny more children access to after-school programs and fail to help schools make urgently needed repairs.
Last week, the Senate passed its version of the education spending bill (S. 2553). Although the Senate measure includes a commendable overall funding increase for education, it also fails to continue the teacher hiring program and does not adequately fund Title I nor the after-school and summer school extended learning opportunities that are so essential.
President Clinton has threatened a veto, setting the scene for upcoming negotiations between the Congress and the Administration on the nation's commitment to equal educational opportunity.
Neither the House proposal nor the Senate's comes close to providing the $9.85 billion for Title I, Part A (Grants to Local School Districts) that would fund the authorization level passed by the House last year. The Congressional Research Service estimates that it would cost $24 billion to fully serve all children eligible for Title I assistance.
So when I speak to the NAACP's delegates next Monday, I will commend them for the organization's commitment to equal educational opportunity, but I will also ask each person there to send the Congress a message on behalf of America's children.
All children can learn - if the Congress will provide them with the opportunity to succeed.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
