For the naacp Legal Defense fund. The organization that i am proud to say i work for and that is responsible for brown and fisher. And so i want to give a little bit of hello . I want to give sorry. I want to give a little bit of background about myself. I am ive been with the Legal Defense fund since march of this year. But worked in the Obama Administration and on the hill for quite some time. But this issue and the reason i am happy to be here with all of you today is personal to me. I am originally from new orleans but also went to school in selma, alabama. Which im sure all of you are familiar with. My father, dr. Norwood russo was the first black school sup superintendent in selma, alabama [ applause ] thank you. In 1987. When he arrived, selma was a very integrated School System. The selma city schools were incredibly integrated. They had, though, what is called inSchool Segregation. They had a tracking system where the majority of africanamerican students were in level three or remedial courses forcing thoem o graduate from high School Without taking basic courses like algebra ron. He eliminated that program. The schools are now very segregated. The white students attend mostly the county schools but private academies that exist today so that history has stayed with me. It is why i do the work i do and it is why im here with you today. Thank you again for joining me here for this very inspiring conversation and this incredible panel that we have. With that, i will like to introduce our host today, congressman bobby scott. [ applause ] thank you for hosting today and it is certainly a pleasure to be here with my colleague danny davis from chicago. Give danny a round of applause. I dont see any other members here. It was more than 63 years ago that the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in brown v. Board of education and in that decision they said education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments and these days as is doubtful that any kind may reasonably be spegexpected to succeed in life if denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. They concluded that in the feel of Public Education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Thanks that we followed that with recognizing that we Fund Education through the Real Estate Tax and guaranteeing in equality, we follow through with the esea, elementary and secondary education act where on the title 1 we put money into low income areas so there would be a fighting chance. We went further to no child left behind which recognized you not only get the money straight, you have to get achievement straight and if there are achievement gaps, you have find them and do something about it. Unfortunately no child left behind had such a cookie cutter approach that it was not effective and about a year nal ago we passed the every Student Succeeds act maintaining the requirement that you assess whether their achievement gaps can have a credible plan to do something about it. Were in the process now of implementing every Student Succeeds act and everybody has to make sure that your local state and local School Systems are actually following the law. But weve unfortunately during that time seen integration kind of slowly dissolve. We went through several years of decades of tearing down segregated schools but as melanie just noticed, segregation is alive and well in the Public Education. Time marched on. The deliberate work of the courts has kind of fallen aside. There have been really some alarming i had hostile decisions that have come along making it even more difficult to integrate even if you want to do it on a voluntary basis. To add insult to injury, at the end of the Obama Administration there was a 12 Million Grant Program for those local teities thapt tha that wanted to integrate. The problem that they have is youve got to do it right because otherwise somebody is going to file suit and you have a little legal complication. It can be done, but if you dont do it right, you will you will mess up and have to dism t dismantle your program. I say unfortunately because when this new administration came in, although many people had applied for the money, they decided not to award any of the grants. So were going backwards and were seeing more and more segregation. K through 12 is getting worse. More than excuse me, more than 20 Million Students of color are attending schools that are racially essentially racially segregated. Thats up from about 14 million just a few years ago. The gao report that was done in 2016 found overwhelming segregation by race and class. Found that the high poverty areas of the schools are underresourced and overz overdisciplined and much less likely to have the kind of resources needed to expel or suspend students. That situation is going on still now. Those attending the segregated schools are less likely to enroll in college and graduate and we need to make sure that those opportunities are there. So some of the questions that we have, how do we improve diversity and education . How do we improve the Racial Climate . Thats become complicated because Everybody Knows that we have to have we have to respect the First Amendment and were trying to have a welcoming atmosphere. When students feel unwelcomed and leave, theres a question of whether that violates title vi of the civil rights law. They say weve got freedom of speech. Wave confederate flags and make the situation bad. But let me tell you, freedom of speech does not give a pass on hostile work environments on a title vii. You have the freedom to say what you want, but when youve said enough to create a hostile work environment, then you violated title vii. We have to see whether or not some of these freedom of expression thats so bad you that violated title vi and not having a welcoming attitude and a welcoming atmosphere where students actually want to attend. And then we have to look into what role does admissions to colleges play and under all of the affirmative action initiatives that have been going on, some in court and some you can do, some you cant do. If were going to close the achievement gap and preappear all students for the 21st century, we have to address all of these questions. Thats why were delighted to have such a distinguished panel today on all phases of education. We look forward to their comments and look forward to their specific recommendations so as we consider the Higher Education act and pursue oversight on every Student Succeeds act, we can make sure that our students are getting the education to which they have a right according to the Supreme Court. Thank you very much. [ applause ] and im just advised that Bonnie Coleman from new jersey is here. Bonnie. Thank you. Danny, are you going to have comments now . Okay. Our were going to call my colleague danny davis who is a former member of the committee on education and the work force and distinguished hard working member from chicago, danny davis. [ applause ] thank you very much. Bobby, what i really wanted to do was commend you for the outstanding leadership you have provided as the voice for education for democrats in the house. I dont mean black democrats. I mean all democrats in the house of representatives. [ applause ] the other thing i would say as a listened to what the plight might be in selma, alabama, is to suggest that its not much better in chicago, illinois. People think of chicago as a big bustling city, progressive. Every kid in my neighborhood goes to a school with all black children. They dont even think about going to one that is not. Every once in a while a little bit of bussing takes place. But the other problem is that many people seem to have forgotten the whole issue of integration and what it also meant relative to opportunity. Theres nothing to do i dont think with individuals just simply wanting to be in the same place. But what they want are the same opportunities, the same results, the same protection under the law. The only thing i can say is that we must continue to strive, strive, no matter who is not striving. My mother used to tell us that right is right if nobody is right. Wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong. And this issue of providing opportunity for young people to move America Forward in less than isolated ways is a challenge that we must continue. I thank all of you for coming and thank the panelists for being here. [ applause ] thank you, danny. Bonnie, did you want to make comments . Bonn Bonnie Watson coleman from new jersey. [ applause ] and while shes coming forward. I want to recognize my colleague from virginia, don mckechon. Good afternoon, everyone. First and foremost, i want to thank bobby scott for all the work that he does and the champion that he is for Educational Equity in his service here in congress. Secondly, i just want to say that im proud to be a part of the cochair of the task force along with danny and some other members as we challenge these issues with regard to education, equity in our cbc. And thirdly, i want to say kmi fr i come from the state of new jersey that has some of the best schools in the country and i come from the Congressional District which represents some of the best schools in the nation. But i also represent Trenton New Jersey and those are the schools where you have the concentration of poverty, the cop sen transportation concentration of minority and its something we have fought for and continue to fight for. Our children irrespective of the zip code from which they come deserve a globally competitive education. As the gentleman said, segregation in and of itself doesnt have to be the problem. Hanging out with those that look like you need not be the problem if hanging out in the environment that has the same tools and opportunities and encouragement and expectation of you is the same. And so it is our responsibility to ensure that our children are not left behind on any level. Education is very important issue for me. Public education is the extremely important issue for me because i think education is the equalizer and Public Education is the means by which those, the majority can get their opportunities. So i applaud you for being here and i thank this magnificent Brilliant Panel for what theyre going to share for us. Let us learn and be energized and awake and alert and ready to mobilize on behalf of our children. Thank you and god bless. [ applause ] r my colleague from virginia, donald mckechon. I wanted to stop by and first say thank you to bobby for the leadership hes given on this issue but i also have a special thank you to bobby that i will probably say a couple three times more this week. I dont get to be his colleague but for his unselfishness. He allowed there to be a lawsuit filed over his district because the court decided that too many africanamericans had been put into one district and they broke it up into two. So im bobby scotts resident. This is what happens after you break up his district. The majority of africanamerican Congressional Districts in virginia but there are two africanamerican congressmen from virginia and thats in large part to bobby scott. I want to say hello to dr. Abdula. Weve got our orange on. Im not a Virginia State alum but theyre in the district. Its good to see all of you, because this is the important, right, Educational Equity. How do we achieve that, what does it look like and what does it mean . You all will develop some good thoughts here today and i promise you this. These are thoughts that will be carried forward by the Congressional Black Caucus in one form or another as we try to address this very important issue. Thank you for being here. Have good luck with your deliberations. We look forward to hearing what you come up with. [ applause ] well begin with the program. Melanie melanie, if youll rejoin us. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, congressman scott. We are going to open with greetings from mr. John king, president and ceo of the Education Trust and former secretary of education under president barack obama. [ applause ] good afternoon, everybody. Thank you, melanie, for the introduction. Thank you congressman scott for your extraordinary leadership on behalf of education equity. I certainly want to recognize the other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are here and those who are not, who are all leading on behalf of education equity. I just want to ask us in this conversation today to consider three things. One, this is not your ordinary school year. When i was a teacher and a principal, i loved the start of the school year because at the start of the school year you havent made any mistakes yet, right . Theres all possibility. But this year our kids come back to school having seen kkk and nazis march across a college campus. Some of our kids come back to school in the context of a travel ban that is aimed at a particular religion. Some of our kids come back to school knowing that they and their families may be deported because of policies of this administration. So its in that context that we have this conversation. This is about what we as people who care about education and care about children are prepared to do to protect our kids. The second truth that we have to grapple with is that despite it being more than 60 years after brown, we have so far to go in enduring a quality of opportunity in our schools. As congressman scott pointed out, we have places around the country that are more segregated today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. We have places where africanamerican students are graduating at a rate 20, 30, 40 points below white students. We have the reality that africanamerican students who Start College are 22 Percentage Points less likely to graduate than white students. Part of the frame for conversation is the urgency with which we must work to close those gaps and the reality that today a majority of the kids in our Public Schools are students of color. The majority of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch f. If we fail to education our low income students and students of color we have no future. Our economy has no future. Our democracy has no future. Thats why this conversation is so urgent. The third framing piece i think is important to remember is that there is a lie being promulgated, a lie about affirmative action. A claim, a claim that isnt true about what our campuses look like. The reality is today africanamerican latino students are underrepresented at our selective admission schools. Latino leaders are underrepresented in the highest ranks of corporate america. We have to be clear that the need for affirmative action, the need to expand opportunity remains and part of how we do that is through strengthening our schools p through 12 and Higher Education and that work couldnt be more important. Thats why im excited for this panel. This is an esteem td paned pane experts who think about what we can do not 10 years from now but tomorrow to change this. Weve got to do it in an environment of vigilance and urgency, because for our kids, their lives are at stake. Ill close with this. I am standing here today. I had the opportunity to serve president obama as secretary of education because of great new York City Public School teachers. [ applause ] i grew up in new york city in brooklyn. My mom passed away when i was eight. My dad when i was 12. My life could have gone a lot of different directions, but i was blessed to have a series of teachers at ps 276, Mark Twain Junior High School in coney island who saved my life. Thats whats at stake in this conversation. Thank you all for being here. Thank you congressman scott for bringing us together and lets get to work. [ applause ] thank you so much for those inspiring words. We are next going to hear from Mary Katherine. She is the president and im sorry executive Vice President of the American Federation of teachers. My apologizes. Thank you so much. [ applause ] thank you so much. Good afternoon. My name is Mary Katherine ricker and im actually a middle School English teacher currently serving as executive Vice President of the American Federation of teachers. I am so freight full to be here and be with all of you and to be able to help launch this panel from brown to fisher increasing racial diversity to improve Educational Equity. It is an honor to be among such distinguished panelists including one of my sisters in the labor move mement carla mot and i bring you greetings from the other 1. 7 million teachers, pair ra professional, School Support staff, public workers, College Faculty and He