catholic organizations. read more at thehill.com. next up, lawmakers education advocates, students and former education department officials talk about race and education, including improving urban school systems, desegregation and minority access to higher education. it's from the congressional black caucus foundation from last month. good afternoon, everyone. thank you so much for joining us today. today's education brain trust is called from brown to fisher. increasing racial diversity to improve educational equity. i am melanie roussel newman, the chief public engagement and communications strategist 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? oh. sorry. i want to give a little bit of background about myself. i am -- i have been with the leal 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 i am sure all of you are familiar with. my father, dr. norward roussel was the first black school superintendent in selma, alabama. [ applause ] >> thank you. in 1987. he was the first black school superintendent in selma, alabama. when he arrived, selma was very integrated school system. the selma city schools were incredibly integrated. they had, though, what's called in-school segregation. they had a tracking system where the majority of african-american students were in level three or remedial courses, forcing them to graduate from high school without taking basic classes like algebra i. in his two-year term he eliminated that program. the schools are now very segregated. might students attend mostly county schools but also private segregation academies that still exist today in selma, alabama. and so, that history has stayed with me. it is why i do the work i do and it is why i am with you here today. thank you, again, for joining me here for this very inspiring conversation and this incredible panel that we have. with that, i would like to introduce our host today, congressman bobby scott. [ applause ] >> thank you, melanie, for hosting today. it's a pleasure to be here with my colleague, danny davis. danny from chicago. give danny a round of applause. i don't see any other members here. okay. it was more than 63 years ago that the supreme court issued a unanimous decision in brown v bor board of education saying that education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments and it's doubtful that any child would be expected to sec seed if denied the right of education. it's a right which must be available to all. the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. now, thanks in -- that we followed that with recognizing that we fund education through the real estate tax, guaranteeing inequality. we followed through with the esea, elementary and secondary education act where, under title i, 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 have to get the money straight, you have to get achievement straight. if there are achievement gaps you have to find them and do something about it. unfortunately, as everybody knows, no child left behind had such a cookie cutter approach that it was not effective and about a year and a half ago we passed the every student sec seeds act, maintaining the requirement that you assess whether or not there are achievement gaps and have a credible plan to do something about it. now, we are in the process now of implementing the every student succeeds act and everybody has to make sure that your local, state and local school systems are actually following the law. but we have, 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, we're still having segregation is alive and well in the public education. as time marched on, the deliberate work of the courts has kind of fallen aside. there have been some alarmingly 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 localities that wanted to voluntarily integrate. giving technical assistance. this is 12 million nationally. the problem that they have is you've 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 don't do it right, you will -- you will mess up and have to dismantle your program. i say, unfortunately, because when the new administration came in, although many people had applied for the money they decided not to award any of the grants. and so we are going -- going backwards. and we're 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. that's 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 over disciplined and much less likely to have the kinds of services and resources needed, more likely to expel or suspend students. now, 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. some of the questions that we have are how do we improve diversity in education, how do we improve the racial climate, and that's become complicated because everybody knows that we have to have -- we have to respect the first amendment. and we are trying to have a welcoming atmosphere. and when students feel unwelcomed and leave, there is a question of whether that violates title 6 of the civil rights law. they say we have freedom of speech. freedom of speech does not give a pass on hostile work environments under title vii. you have the freedom to say what you want but when you said enough to create a hostile work environment you've violated title vii. we have to see whether some of the freedom of expression is so bad that you violated title vi and not having a welcoming attitude and atmosphere where students actually want to attend. we then 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, some you can do, some you can't do. if we are going to close the achievement gap and prepare all students for the 21st century we have to address all these questions. that's why we are 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 overnight on every student sec seeds ac succeeds act we can ensure that all the students are getting the education to which they have a right according to the supreme court. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> and i am just advised that bonnie watson coleman from new jersey is here. bonnie. thank you. danny, are you going to have comments now? okay. our -- we're going to call on my colleague, danny davis, who is a former member of the committee on education in the workforce and distinguished hard-working member from chicago, danny davis. [ applause ] then, bonnie, you are going to be next. >> thank you very much. and 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. and i don't mean black democrats. i mean all democrats. in the house of representatives. bobby scott. [ applause ] >> the other thing i would say, as i listened to what the plight might be in selma, alabama, is to suggest that it's 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 don't even think about going to one that is not. every once in a while a little bit of busing takes place. but the other part is that many people seem to have forgotten the whole issue of integration and what it also meant relative to opportunity. there is nothing to do, i don't think, with individuals just simply wanting to be in the same place. but whethat they want are the s 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, do you want to make comments? bonnie watson coleman from new jersey. [ applause ] >> and while she is coming forward, i want to recognize my colleague from virginia,don mckeechen. dn donald mckeechen. >> good afternoon, everyone. >> good afternoon. >> 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 i am proud to be a part of the -- a co-chair 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 i come from the state of new jersey that's got some of the best schools in the country, and i come from the 12th congressional district that has places like princeton and west windsor, which represent some of the best schools in the nation. but i also represent trenton, new jersey, and plainfield, new jersey, and those are the schools where you have the concentration of poverty, the concentration of minorities, and a -- the tools that are outdated and the facilities which are outdated. and something that we have fought for and we continue to fight for. because 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 doesn't 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 it the same. and so it is our responsibility to ensure that our children are not left behind on any level. education is a very important issue for me. public education is an extremely 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 they are going to share for us. let es learn and be energized and awake and alert and ready to mobilize on behalf of our children. thank you and god bless. [ applause ] >> my colleague from virginia, donald mckeechen. [ applause ] >> i wanted to stop by and first say thank you to bobby for the leadership that he has given on this issue. but i also have a special thank you to bobby that i will probably say a couple or three times more this week. i don't get to be his colleague but for his unselfishness, you see, because he allowed there to be a lawsuit filed over his district because the court decided that too many african-americans had been put into one district and they broke it up into two. so i am bob yby scott's residue. this is what happens after you break up his district. there are no more majority african-american districts in virginia but there are two african-american congressman from virginia in large part because of bobby scott. hello to dr. abdullah. virginia state. i am not an alum but they're in the district. g good to see you. professor robinson. good to see you, ma'am. good to see you all. this is the next front tier. educational equity. how do we achieve that, what does it look like and what does it mean. you'll develop good thoughts here today. i promise you these are thoughts this 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. good luck with your deliberations. we look forward to hearing what you come up with. [ applause ] >> and now we'll begin with the program. melanie, if you will 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. >> good afternoon. >> 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 haven't made any mistakes yet, right? there is all possibility. this year our kids come back to school having seen the kkk and nazis march across a campus. some of our kids come to school in the conhe tetext of a travel aimed at people of a particular religion. some come back to school knowing they or their families may be deported. 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 ensuring equality 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 african-american students are graduating at a rate 20, 30, 40 points below white students. we have the reality that african-american students who start college are 22 percentage points less likely to graduate than white students. so part of the frame for this 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. majority of kids in our public schools are in families eligible for free or reduced price lunch. if we fail as a society to education our low income students and students of color we have no future. our economy has no future, our democracy has no future. that's why this conversation is so urgent. the third framing piece i think that's important to remember is that there is a lie being propagated, a lie about affirmative action, a claim -- a claim that isn't true about what our higher ed campuses look like. the reality is, today, african-american and latino students are under represented at our selective admission schools. african-american latino leaders are underrepresented in the highest ranks of corporate america. so 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 couldn't be more urgent, which is why i am excited for this esteemed panel of experts who will help us think about what we can go do not a year or ten years from now but tomorrow to change this. but we've got to do it in an environment of vigilance and urgency. because, for our kids, their lives are at stake. i will close with this. i am standing here today, had the opportunity to serve president obama as secretary of education because of great new york city public schoolteachers. [ applause ] i grew up in new york city in brooklyn. my moms passed away when i was 8 and my dad when i was 12. my life could have gone in a variety of different directions. i was blessed to have teachers who saved my life. that's what's at stake in this conversation. thank you all for being here. thank you, again, congressman scott, for bringing us together. and let's get to work. [ applause ] >> thank you so much for those inspiring words. we are next going to hear from mary kathryn ricker. miss ricker is the president and -- i am sorry. executive vice president of american federation of teachers. >> good afternoon. i am a middle school english teacher currently serving as executive vice president of the american federation of teachers. i am grateful 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 movement, carla mats. [ applause ]karla mats. [ applause ] i bring you greetings from the other 1.7 million teachers. paraprofessional, school support staff, public workers, college faculty and health care workers in the american federation of teachers. our president, randy winegarten, wishes she could be here today and, of course, our secretary-treasurer, loretta johnson has been all over the place. you've probably already had the chance to see her. all of us would especially like to thank ranking member scott for his tireless leadership on issues that impact our members and the communities we serve. taking those actions that reduce racial and socioeconomic segregation and offering solutions to address disparities in our public schools, in our colleges and our universities. that work is not lost on us any day. and he is there every day doing it for us and with us. for more than 100 years the american federation of teachers has been laser focused on improving public education and enhancing the voices of the professional educators in our work, both inside and outside of the classroom. as part of that work, we at aft have worked tirelessly to form partnerships and create relationships, the sort that allow us to fight forward and reclaim the promise of public education once and for all. one of our most trusted and valuable alliances has been with the congressional black caucus, and their members and constituencies. the cbc's members of congress continue to stand up and fight for the policies we need. so that no american feels forgotten. we have fought alongside our partners for decades. the aft was an original brown v board amicus. we removed locals from our union when they did not adhere to our desegregation standards. and today, we continue to fight. for universal access to high-quality public education, for young people, for immigrants, refugees, native population. african-americans, african immigrants and those with special needs to have access to a high-quality public education across this country, in every community. that same drive for justice that led us to support brown decades ago is motivating us today to defend daca recipients, denounce the ugly rhetoric coming out of the white house that has emboldened white supremacists and fringe groups to fight back attempts to privatize and profit off of our children's and our young people's educational opportunities. and to protect voting rights for everyone. no exceptions. [ applause ] so we've made some progress over the years, but it is clear there is still work to be done. as john king pointed out, this is no ordinary beginning of a school year for any of us. we will not let our defenses be lowered or sit on the sidelines. we know who is behind these roll-backs. we know it is betsy devos, we know it is donald trump. we know it is mike pence. and these ideologues try to roll back decades of civil rights protections, the aft is with you in fighting back to protect established rights for all students, for all citizens. i am looking forward to hearing from our distinguished panelists today about the challenges of bigotry, racism and exclusion our nation still faces. and about their ideas to help us together overcome these challenges. today's panel will help all of us think harder about what we can do to desegregate our schools and communities and provide better educational opportunities for all americans. thank you so much for having us be a part of this. we look forward to being elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder with you in every struggle to reclaim the promise of public education for everyone. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. with that, i would like to introduce our distinguished panelists. we start to my left with catherine lehman, currently the chair of the u.s. commission on civil rights. next, my colleague, michelle turnage young, senior counsel at the naacp legal defense and educational fund. kimberly robinson, professor at the university of richmond school of law. alice huffman, who is the president of the california naacp. tanya clay house, principal at clay house consulting, incorporated. we are also going to hear today from pirincess moss. secretary-treasurer of the national education association. in the front row. karla hernandez-mats. president of the united teachers of dade. some fans in the audience! dr. pandwe gibson, founder and president of eco tech visions. dr. makola abdullah, president of virginia state university. john c. brittain, professor of law at the university of d.c. school of law. andrew nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics at education trust. we are also going to hear today from jaylexia clark, who is a sophomore studying labor relations at cornell university. we're going to start by hearing -- opening remarks from each of the panelists. with that, i will turn it over to kathryn, thank you. >> i'm going to stand because i can't see some of you behind the podium. terrific to be with you. i want to thank members of congress for convening us, bringing us together. as we get started i want to set the stage with just how bleak these times are. this administration is absolutely bent on rolling back civil rights protections. so the topic of this panel could not be more urgent, and the time could not be more bleak for us. we really need to be arm and arm, working together, because we cannot rely on this administration to even live up to the long standing, 60-year civil rights commitments that we have had national consensus about you will until now. i want to talk about how we know, how concerned we ought to be and what is directly in front of us. take a look only at the department of justice budget proposal from the trump administration. it has two priorities for education. one is to take a look at rescinding regulations with respect to education and the other is evaluating long-standing consent decrees. more than 90% of the long standing decrees at the department of justice with respect to education are desegregation consent decrees. what that tells us is that one of two priorities for this administration is putting an end to desegregation efforts in schools as we know them now. that will be devastating for us. that is not hyperbole. we saw it in the reagan administration. the reagan administration came in with a plan to roll back desegregation, they ended as many desegregation agreements as they could in that time. and if they couldn't end them they entered into very, very narrow agreements that we still live today. so, we know how bad it could be. we know it would be desperately dangerous. we also know that our schools are radically segregated today. if we don't act, things will not get better. we also know what could happen. we know from the apex in civil rights enforcement before the obama administration, but the apex in civil rights enforcement in schools in the middle 1960s and beginning of 1970s allowed for meaningful integration in schools across the country, including throughout the south. meaningful integration that began many years after brown versus board of education but actually began to be the lived experience of students in schools. we don't see that anymore because the reagan administration ended with a purpose, ended meaningful desegregation work. it announced it with speeches. it signalled to the country that they were no longer serious about it and that the office for civil rights at the department of education and the department of justice would no longer be serious about civil rights enforcement with respect to racial justice and integration in schools and also sought change in law, sought changes from the united states supreme court that made doctrinal change that made it much harder to do the work going forward. that was up until now the nader for the country with respect to integration but we are living a new bottom. we need to be very, very painfully aware that that is true and think about how we can be arm in arm, recognizing that we cannot rely on the federal government to be there to be the backstop that it had been up until now, that we do have the tools. there are still remaining legal tools available and we ought to use them. i am excited to hear what others will say about that on this panel but it is up to us. in our own children's schools. it's up to us in the schools our children don't attend but somebody else's baby attends. we need to be there for every child in every school and every community. we can't rely on the federal government to do it. we have to rely on ourselves. volunteer. try to become elected officials so you can do what's right. our communities still have tools to figure out how it is we change opportunities in schools. i want to stop by being concrete about what that means. we know from recent data that our schools are radically segregat segregated as i mentioned. we also segregate within schools. we segregate opportunity within schools. before i came to the commission on civil rights i worked with john king as assistant secretary for civil rights at the department of education and we maintained the civil rights collection database. we know from the database that first of all only 40% of high schools offer calculus to anyone. put aside the devastating reality that we don't offer high rigger courses rigor courses. within our schools we are segregating opportunity. we ought to be saying we have high expectations for every student and insist that all of our kids will be in those schools. that's within our control and we should be advocating for it now. i encourage you to be arm and arm with us and the commission on civil rights is committed to monitoring civil rights policy, monitoring efficacy in the administration about advocating for better civil rights policy. we will still be there. i hope you will be there with us. thank you. >> hello, everyone. my name is michelle turnage young. i am senior counsel at the naacp legal defense and educational fund. before i was with naacp ldf i was a trial attorney at the united states department of justice in the civil rights division, in the educational opportunity section. what i have been working on for the past few years is school desegregation cases across the country. i had cases and have cases in about seven finidifferent feder government jurisdictions. many people meet me and find out that i am a school desegregation lawyer and are appalled. they think segregation is a thing of the past. i think most people would be surprised to find out that most of the cases that i have worked on are cases that have been around for more than 50 years. the idea that segregation is a thing of the past is a myth. there are probably in the neighborhood -- there are hundreds, really, of school desegregation cases that originated in the '50s and '60s that are still open and ongoing. these school districts literally never desegregated. they are still carrying on with the segregation. this is segregation created by the state and it's segregation that is maintained by the state even today. and we're still working on getting these school districts desegregated. these cases are all across the country. it's not only in the south. it's everywhere in the country. it's so important that each of you learn what you can about segregation and take it back and spread the word, because it's very much still an issue. when we are litigating these cases what we're finding is that the response is not, oh, we need to work on this. the response is resistance to did he segregating even at this point. i have arrived at court to crowds of protesters who are protesting against desegregating the schools. largely because the parents are worried that, if they give broader opportunities to black children, that the opportunities are going to be taken away from their children. so that's definitely still a thing that's happening. i wanted to say a few words about some of the challenges we're running into with these desegregation cases. segregation is something that is entrenched in our society. so what we are finding is that segregation academies are still around and still hampering our efforts. segregation academies are schools that started around the 1970s when schools were beginning to desegregate. if court ordered a school to desegregate, often what happened is, with state assistance, the white community began a school, a private school, that would take in the white students, so that then the white students didn't have to go to the public schools with the black children. it's the case that, in most school districts where i am still working, there are segregation academies. so the children are still going to other schools. and sometimes the schools aren't very good at what they're doing. they're not able to teach the children to actually learn how to read or do other things that you need to learn in school. another problem that we are running into is the schools were often constructed to further segregation. so instead of building a school between a black community and a white community to make it easy for children from both communities to get to the school, they built the school as deep into the black community as possible so that the white children would have to travel very far to get there. and similarly, they built the schools far into the white community as possible so that it would be very difficult for the black children to get there. the schools are still in the same place. we have plenty of schools that have been around since the '50s. when you are talking about desegregation, if the communities are still racially segregated you have an issue where you literally can't desegregate the schools without busing children to and fro. busing is a very unpopular idea. as catherine and john were saying over the years the court has curtailed the remedies available to us lawyers to be able to go out and desegregate the schools. that's a very difficult issue that, if community -- if there were, you know, more awareness about the issue, it would be certainly helpful in trying to get laws changed in that regard. i will leave you with this. part of the reason that desegregating schools remains very important, aside from all of the obvious ones, is this. when you desegregate schools, you tend to equalize resources. so, in schools where we have been fighting desegregated schools we've been able to equalize access to course offerings, equalize access to extracurricular activities. sometimes schools started out -- one school that happens to serve the white community has all of the credentialed teachers, the teachers with ph.d.s, they have all the college prep courses. by desegregating we have been able to equalize those resources. when you think about that, it makes sense that as gary orfield noted, the period of growing desegregation coincided with the period of the most dramatic narrowing of the test score gap ever recorded for blacks and whites. that's definitely something that you want to keep in mind when talking about segregation to others. if we want to equalize some of the gaps in this country, desegregation is certainly one thing that you want to do to be able to do that. thank you. [ applause ] >> before we move on, we have a little bit of housekeeping. we have some people standing around the sides and on the back. if you are sitting in a row next to an empty seat, if you could scoot over toward the middle of your row so that those individuals who are standing can find seats quickly and have a seat so that we can accommodate as many people as possible. yes, get comfortable. get close. meet your neighbors. we have seats here on the left side of the room. if you're just coming in and you'd like to have a seat, on the left side there are still a few seats available. and again, if you are sitting on the end of a row next to an empty seat, raise your hand so that people can see that there is a seat available. thank you. okay. we're going to keep this show on the road so that we can end on time. again, raise your hands if you are sitting next to an empty seat. if you want to have a seat, please do. with that i am going to turn it over to kimberly robinson, professor at the university of richmond school of law. as we go down the row with the panelists, if you can reintroduce yourselves at the beginning, that would be amazing, for those who are just joining us. thank you so much. >> first, i want to give a thank you to congressman scott and other members of the congressional black caucus for hosting this event. i am grateful to be here and excited to talk with you. i am going to talk with you today a bit about school funding. and the issue of resources -- okay. closer. got it. i can just talk really loud. i teach in large classrooms, so i can do that too. all right. so i am going to talk with you today about the issue of school funding. it is critical to the resources that all children get and the opportunities that they receive in all schools. and so what i am going to talk with you about is the fact that we currently have a system of school funding that is broken, inefficient and ineffective. and there are many reasons for that, and i am going to talk with you about one of the key reasons. one of the key reasons is a decision called san antonio independent school district versus rodriguez. it was decided in 1973 and does not get nearly the press that brown versus board of education did but is critical to understanding why we are in the crisis that we are in today. in san antonio independent school district versus rodriguez, the court held that there is not a federal constitutional right to education and there is no federal mechanism for addressing disparities in funding between school districts. why does this matter? because data shows that disparities in educational opportunity and funding often track along the lines of race and class because school systems are funded based upon property taxes in many places. the local share is. so one of the challenges that we face is that our ongoing system of racially isolated schools is compounded and made worse by the fact that oftentimes racially isolated schools are under funded or not funded effectively to help the students achieve and succeed on an equal level with their more affluent and white peers. one of the -- so there are many ways that school funding is broken. oftentimes property taxes are cited as one ever the kof the k but i want you to understand more about why funding systems are broken. research is very clear and federal policy acknowledges that low income children in concentrated poverty typically need 40% more resources to achieve, on a level playing field with their middle income peers. however, our state systems of funding do not provide the additional funding that is needed for this level playing field. so a 2017 report called "is funding fair" looked at state and local funding as well as impact aid that is spent by districts, and what they found is 21 states actually give less funding to districts that have higher concentrations of poverty, 15 states give the same funding, and only 12 states have progressive funding. a couple they didn't have the data for. my point is, we have two-thirds of our states who get either the same or less funding to districts with higher concentrations of poverty. that sort of funding system sets up our children in our schools for failure because they do not have the funding base to provide the resources that are needed to achieve the state standards. the second thing is, many of you are aware of the fact that states have standards now, what children should know and be able to do for each grade level. however, the unfortunate reality is that state funding systems too often are not tied to those standards. they are not tied to the cost of educating children, all children, to succeed at learning the content of state standards. instead, what school finance litigation has revealed is that oftentimes the amount of funding is tied to how much is available in the budget and the lawmakers sit down and divide it up between the districts and you reverse engineer the formula to get to that number. and so, the challenges that we have funding systems that are not linked to the goals they should have and we have consistently low levels of funding in some states and we don't have accountability systems for even the funding that's going into the systems to say that the money is being spent well. so what should we do about this. i think one of the things that we need to do is push for an actual federal right to education that gives you a right to go to federal court when the state is denying you equal access to an excellent education. that would either be an overturning of the rodriguez decision or a recognition by congress of a statutory federal right to education, but we need a mechanism to move beyond the laboratories of the states where the supreme court said we recognize there is inequality in the rodriguez decision, we trust the states to do better. unfortunately, as i have explained, many states have not done, even most states have not done much better and it is time that we demand that there is indeed access to a mechanism, a federal mechanism, to ensure equal access to an excellent education for all children. thank you. [ applause ] >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> i am alice huffman, chair of the naacp task force on quality education for all. i want to thank representative scott. he comes to our naacp meetings every single year. so i feel like he is an old friend, and i want to also thank other members who are present and this panel. we did a study, naacp, that looked at what is going on in our school system. we had nine members of the task force, and we went to seven states. we did empirical work. we listened. we listened to pros and cons. we had charter school people there who were advocating for charter schools, and we had regular, traditional teachers there who were advocating for traditional schools, and we had pros and cons of both ways. now, the naacp, everybody talks about brown v board, has always stood for education. we believe that is the door that opens equality for everyone, if you can get a quality education. is and so, what i hear when i hear brown v board, i am wondering, with the things that's going on now within the school system, how we can really guarantee a quality education for every child, because there are so many different configurations. obviously, we passed a resolution to look at charter schools initially, but then mr. trump and votes came and we decided we better look at education across the board because it is truly in danger. education as we know it that you and i receive will probably not be around if we don't try to block some of the current trends that are going on. so this task force, one of my members i think is here from massachusetts, mr. curry, i first of all, charter schools. now, african-american parents are very, very anxious to find a quality education for their children. they know like everybody else they only get one shot at educating their child. so if they go into a local school, chances are they'll come out with a deficient education. so because of this push for quality education, charter schools have gotten a leg up. i want you to remember, when brown v. board came and we started desegregating schools, there was always a force out there who was pushing against desegregation. and that force went all the way from vouchers, from vouchers, they went to home schooling to try to get text credits. from home schooling, they went to magnet schools, until finally, bingo, they hit with charter schools. charter schools is a movement by deep pocket people to refund, i mean, to privatize public education. now, naacp -- [ applause ] -- did not recommend. don't clap because i'm losing my time. naacp did not recommend that we ban charter schools. we called for a moratorium until we could get some transparency and some accountability to see what's really going on. now, with the parents who are seeking quality education, if they got their child in a quality charter school, fine. but naacp cares about all the children, not just a few who can move around. we always had choice. we have always had private schools and public schools. so that's not new. what's new is they're taking our taxpayer dollars to resegregate our schools. so we want to make sure that our parents are not being shammed again. if they get in these schools, some of them are good, some are bad. we know we have problems with intercity schools. in the suburbs, schools are doing well. they don't have all these alternative schools in the suburbs. all their schools mostly are choice schools. they don't have to go through what we're going through in the inner city. we made some findings. i'm going to run out of time, but you got the report. let me tell you what we found. i have a half minute left. we found that in the 43 states, all of them have different charter schools. charter schools are publicly funding, but they're privately chartered. are they public or are they private? uh-huh. what's expected at charter schools is a concentration of low-income inner city, so they're resegregating our schools, and what we recommend, more funding for our traditional schools, progressive funding, as you talked about. massachusetts and california are funding where the need is most. we also think that we need to mandate a rigorous reauthorization system for charter schools. and then i think we should eliminate for-profit charter schools. there is no reason to make money on the backs of our kids who are trying to get an education. is my time up? i had a lot more. read the report. [ applause ] >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is karla hernandez-mats. i'm the president of the united teachers of dade, out of miami-dade, florida. we're the fourth largest school district and a district that is doing a lot despite the concerted efforts to dismantle public education. so i thank my colleagues that are on this panel because they really touched upon a lot of the very important points that i wanted to make, so i will only highlight a few. this, when desegregation took place, brown v. board of education, that's when we saw a spike in private institutions, because the white families wanted to keep their white children in segregated schools. that's when we saw vouchers increase as well. and with desegregating of schools in the late '80s, when is the reagan administration, is when we saw that they started to decrease in court oversight. and again, we saw a spike in resegregation of our public schools. so i say these things because everything is very intentional. so let's make sure we understand that. everything is intentional. they didn't want our kids to have, you know, adequate education. then they saw that education was working, so let's figure out how to resegregate them. and so now that we are talking about taxpayers, and i appreciate what my sister has said about charter schools because that's very important. i'll give you a very specific example. in the state of florida, and, you know, i love my state and i love my county, but florida is known for, you know, the horrible reform that we bring about and that then other states try to take because they feel that it's good. this is -- you know, inadequate reform happens in florida. we see, you know, we saw that that's when they started to test and they started to label communities, and they started to tell children of color that you are an f-student or a d-student and that was a d community and an f community, and really to impact, you know, what it is that we thought of ourselves in our communities. and so what's happened now in florida, we see that it's turned into corporate welfare because what we're doing is giving our taxpayer dollars to these charter school entities. and they are -- they're doing it for business. it's not about educating the child because they're not even education experts. and i don't say that to, you know, put down every charter school, because we know there are some good ones out there, but what we're seeing in florida, this is the case. and so we have a charter school operators that don't have a clue of what it is to be an education expert. they're running these schools, but really for the money. and what happens is that these taxpayer dollars that go into these schools, once these schools get shut down, they keep that school, that property. so this is corporate welfare. we are funding people to have these corporations. and what we're seeing just happened in our florida state legislature, they passed a law, 70-69, and in one of -- one of the things that it allowed for was to have teachers that were uncertified or are uncertified to teach in the most vulnerable communities. so think about that. our communities, our black and brown communities that need the most, you know, resources, that need the most help, now we have a state legislature that is saying to our communities that you don't need anybody that really knows what they're talking about to teach you. why? why? because it is about uneducating our community. let's keep our communities ignorant. let's keep our communities segregated. let's keep our communities poor. there is a racial -- there's an income and racial segregation happening in this country, and it's not going to get better. so the point is, we know that these things are happening. we know that the segregation is happening. we know there are income inequalities, gender inequalities, but what are we going to do about that? it starts at the local level. we need to start electing people who care about our communities, people who care about what's happening in our schools. whether or not you have a child in the school system, it's about our future. it's about creating opportunities and making sure that our schools are still the last equalizer. the last equalizer. schools are good for me. i am a first generation american here in this country. my parents are immigrants. and i believe that public schools were good for you. how many of you are public school graduates? the majority. that's a majority of this audience here. and we have to stand behind our public schools, and we have to fight because it is our children. it is our future. and we cannot just sit idly by as we have people who are systematically dismantling our public education. >> thank you. thank you so much. before we move on to those on the dais, we're going to bring up ms. tanya clay house. tanya clay house is principal and former deputy assistant secretary for p-12 education. at the department of education. thank you so much. >> so thank you for allowing me to be here today. i think i'm messing up the forum here. okay. so i don't actually know all that's been said. i apologize for getting here late. it goes to some of the issues that -- did i mess this up? this doesn't count against my time, right? okay. so you know, i was just coming from a panel that was talking about the 13th amendment and policing. and how to contribute to mass incarceration. and on the panel, my focus was about what's happening in our schools. and how that's contributing to the mass incarceration of students of color. and so i kept, you know, talking about the statistics that we gathered, that were gathered by my good friend here, catherine, at the department of education and the office of civil rights. so it's particularly important for me to be here today. that were gathered. my good friend here, kathryn, at the department of education and the office of civil rights. and so it's particularly important for me to be here today, because i am -- i do believe that public education system is just foundational to the success that we have, and in our community. and i am a proud product of the public education system. my parents both public educators, principal in the education system. and so i fundamentally believe that this is how we are going to achieve the success within our society. and so i was privileged to work with -- from secretary john king, and i really appreciated the ability to be able to help manage a portfolio that really spoke to the need to ensure that not only the focus on diversity within our classrooms, but understanding how that is in effect achieving a quality public education. and so i just want to go over a couple of things. because i know that there are so many experts on this panel. and i just want to focus on some of the things that we were able to do. and make you understand that the need and the understanding of this issue is real. not only in the federal level -- well, not this administration. but on the national level, particularly in the organizations that are working on this. but also from the states. so when i was at the department, we convened working groups. we had across the board within the department working to understand how it is we could help our districts to achieve a quality public education, and part and parcel to that was ensuring that we had a diverse classroom and integrated teacher work force. all right? so that in and of itself was the way to help ensure that type of quality education. and so in doing -- in engaging in these working groups, we convened two convenings, bringing together state and local educators, administrators, those in the district to understand, okay, what are your needs? and these are people that desired to make sure that they are providing the best for their students. right? and so we came together. and we had two convenings, developed recommendations. and out of that was developed an actual grant program in order to help enable there to be some focus on diversity within our classrooms. because that is so important. the evolution of brown v board up to fisher was not just about ensuring that you had a black child sitting next to a white child. it was about resources. about ensuring that we have the necessary resources for all of our children, and because of the way that we're set up and because of the way that financing is done today, school financing is done today, we understand that that necessarily means that you need to have a diverse, integrated classroom. all right? and so this is why we had such a focus on this. this is why there is a priority. and so knowing this and coming from the recommendations that we had from the state and local educators, you know, we had the grant program. but we also knew that we couldn't just -- that could not be it. even as we were leaving the administration, up until two days before we left, we were having meetings with foundations, with those in the community to say how can we help? what else can be done moving forward with this strategy? in my one minute, i'm going to tell you everything else we did in that year-and-a-half. and we did this, because we understood that there is this desire, this appreciation, for how it is that this works within our schools. and so i think there's a lot of things that are going on right now, and i guess i want to leave you with this, because i want you to understand that even as we talk about this issue, the issues of public education, and the need to ensure that we're not defunding our public education system, that we're not sending all the resources to privatized schools who never wanted to necessarily have all in the first place, let's just be clear, about the reason why private schools were created. but the point is this. that there is a massive coalition out there, coalitions out there, that are working on these issues. all right? and that we need to engage in that process and make sure that we are there for our local and state educators, administrators, who are looking for collaborations and resources. we need to be the ones who are speaking to those funders in the community. because right now we cannot necessarily rely on the national federal government to provide the resources like we were trying to do. but there are avenues in which we can assist. and so since we even left the department, there have been upwards i think about five different convenings that i participated in. secretary participated in. kathryn has participated in. on integration at harvard, the ford foundation. there are a number of things coming up. the national coalition on school diversity. all of this is out there in our grasp. and i do believe that we do have a unique opportunity right now to not simply stand by. although our public education system is being attacked, we need to take -- we need to use this time to say, you know what, if you want a quality public education system, don't ignore what we already know, which is that a quality public education system necessarily means that we have a diverse and integrated classroom. that we have the resources that we need to ensure that all of our children are educated. and that we have the teaching work force that is there that is culturally competent and appreciative of our students' needs. that this is the way we need to ensure that we are immediately affecting what's happening in our school systems. and so i encourage all of you as we continue to converse about, you know, how things have evolved to think about how you can be instructive and instrumental within your districts, working with the school boards, and helping them and giving them the support they need, as we move forward, because while our public education system is under attack, it's up to us to show that this is how we're going to succeed in our society, and we cannot allow ourselves to go backwards and have selective amnesia about, in fact, how and why our public education system was put together. because it is about the success of our community, of communities of color, of all americans to be successful and productive citizens in this very great america in the united states that we exist in. thank you. [ applause ] thank you so much, tanya. we're going to move along with ms. princess moss, secretary treasurer of the national education association. [ applause ] >> good afternoon, everyone. and thank you, congressman scott and the cbc for sponsoring this wonderful panel. i am princess moss. and i am the daughter of two public school bus drivers who my dad didn't finish school, because he had to go back on the farm to help his family. my mother graduated from high school. but the one thing that they instilled in me that the path to success was a great public education. they instilled in me that the way out of our small town of bumpass, virginia, was through a great public education. and i want that same opportunity for every little boy and girl, for every student here in america. and that path out has led me to represent the national education association as their secretary treasurer. and i bring you greetings on behalf of president lilly garcia and vice president becky pringle, and our 3 million members. we are driven by a vision of a great public school for every student. that same vision that my parents instilled in me as a child. we want to be able to do what each and every one of you in here want to do, and that is help our students, their parents and the communities that they live in be the very best and achieve the most success that they possibly can. in all of our history, we have always advocated for ways to improve education. but now we are fighting for the very existence of public education. whether public education lives or dies in this country, it's in our hands. and should we choose to accept the mission, we have work to do. public education policy has shifted from leveling the playing field and to turning education into competition where there are winners and losers. and where we must -- we must step forward and champion equity. we have to define solutions that drive excellence and success among all students. a strong future for public education depends on equity for all students, and equity and equality are not the same thing. our students must be a first priority and not an afterthought. and should we choose to accept the mission, we have work to do. public education policy has shifted from leveling the playing field and to turning education into competition where there are winners and losers. and where we must -- we must step forward and champion equity. we have to define solutions that drive excellence and success among all students. a strong future for public education depends on equity for all students, and equity and equality are not the same thing. our students must be a first priority and not an afterthought. clearly, our system today is separate and it is unequal. it is a race and class-based system that drives decisions on resources and supports. in more than 60 years after brown versus board, we know that year after year, our black and brown and poor students are cheated. cheated without fail. we do have the every student succeeds act. and our voices are being heard on the local level, at the ground. we can determine what success looks like for our students under this new education law, coauthored by congressman bobby scott. and our voices are being heard on the local level, at the ground. we can determine what success looks like for our students under this new education law, coauthored by congressman bobby scott. for us, at the nea, it's simple arithmetic. what we see in the best schools is what we want to see in every school. that is our vision. we want to find what the best schools with the most successful students are providing, and we want that for all of our schools. and i wonder how many of you know that 80% of the richest families send their kids to their neighborhood public schools. do you know why? because they are fabulous schools. everyone should visit the best schools. those schools -- i'm a music teacher. those schools with art, music, physical education, a nurse, librarian, counselors. how about upgraded technology and the infrastructure to use that technology? are there ap classes? are there baccalaureates, are there after school programs, enrichment classes and nutrition programs? those are some of the things that we have been encouraging our schools to look at. to build an equity checklist. an equity checklist. of all the things that make a public school great, and demand that they be offered in your own schools. the every student succeeds act offers us that opportunity. in our country today, public school children are more racially isolated now than at any point in the past four decades. there is data that speaks to the fact that african-american students are six times more likely than white students to attend high-poverty elementary school. and the list goes on and on. i'm not going to repeat what you've already heard. but my friends, we have work to do. the vision of nea is very simple. every student deserves a quality public education. every student, whether they are hispanic or nonhispanic, white or black, native-born or immigrant, prosperous or poor or gay or straight, they deserve access to a quality public education. of all the things that make a public school great, and demand that they be offered in your own schools. the every student succeeds act offers us that opportunity. in our country today, public school children are more racially isolated now than at any point in the past four decades. there is data that speaks to the fact that african-american students are six times more likely than white students to attend high-poverty elementary school. and the list goes on and on. i'm not going to repeat what you've already heard. but my friends, we have work to do. the vision of nea is very simple. every student deserves a quality public education. every student, whether they are hispanic or nonhispanic, white or black, native-born or immigrant, prosperous or poor or gay or straight, they deserve access to a quality public education. we are at a crossroads, my friends. and we have the responsibility, each and every one of us in here, we have the responsibility as they say in the baptist church, to stay woke! to stay woke. to speak up and speak out on behalf of what's right for our students. for public education. and our communities that they serve. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, ms. moss. and we're going to continue with those on the dias. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> i am dr. pontly gibson, and i wanted to first say thank you to representative scott for having me on the panel. i am here as a representative of kenneth lowe gibson senior, my grandfather. after fighting in world war ii, he used the gi bill to go to the university of northwestern in chicago. and went on to become the first black regional director of the irs for the midwest region. from there he put his eight younger brothers and sisters through college. through school. including his two children. my aunt and my father, kenneth lowe gibson jr. and then continued that legacy with myself and my little brother. when i went to a prestigious liberal arts college in california and decided to become a teacher, post graduation my grandfather was probably the only one who was supportive of that choice. and he told me a couple of things. he told me that brown v board and desegregation was about access to resources. but he told me that it came at the cost of cultural competency amongst the teaching rank that was in front of children. so i became a teacher in los angeles public schools. and i supported my students in pasadena unified school system. and in the middle school to which i was a science teacher, i was the first black teacher for my middle school children in my school. i was sanctioned by my latino woman principal for having my children read maya angelou "know why the cage bird sings," because it was a ninth grade reading list book and i was teaching eighth grade. cultural competency is something that was sacrificed and something that was not talked about as we talked about the byproducts of desegregation. i don't care if kids go to schools where there are monolithic environments. if the teachers cannot have a level of cultural competency to represent the people who are in front of them. [ applause ] i'm from new orleans and chicago. so while i was a teacher, climbed through the ranks, became a department head, hurricane katrina hit my home and my mother and my brother had to evacuate. i was 22, and i thought i had the answers to the world. so -- and i knew nobody would listen. so i applied to harvard, got accepted, went through a program called about school leadership and started a charter school network. called renew. in new orleans. in new orleans at the time, the public school system was decimated. there was nothing. and they were unwilling to reopen public schools. charter was the only option. we opened six schools the first year, 11 the second, and 16 the third. it had never been done before at that pace. i told you all i had the answer. i went on to become the founding principle of one of those schools. i went on to support my students in advancing an ela and math. what did i do that was different from other schools in the area? i fired all the security guards and all of the custodians. and i hired teachers. resources. allocated to students. to direct service. to children. to their need. made all the difference in the world in learning. we got students reading at reading level, because we got class sizes down to 4-1 in some situations. resources. and we retained many of those teachers who came from new orleans public schools that many other schools threw away. because they had cultural competency and integrated them with the people who had the resources before that. i left that, came to d.c., thought this was the bastion for something new. and within two months, one of my children in new orleans was killed. and i had never lost a child before in my educational career. and two things hit me. one, you cannot create educational opportunities for children without creating economic opportunities for the adults in their environment to advocate for them. cultural competency is critical. my grandfather's lessons still sit with me. and now i run an organization called echo tech visions. we do green tech manufacturing. we train adults in digital competency, cultural competency, manufacturing. so they can then advocate for their children. so i left school, and i'm still in education. because i believe what my grandfather said is true. the only way to address the issues that brown v board wanted to create or the world that it wanted to create is to create economic development for communities. thank you. [ applause ] >> my name is mccullough abdullah. i currently serve as the president of virginia state university. i would like to start first by thanking my congressman who was here earlier. i also would like to thank my immediate past congressman, representative bobby scott, for all of the great work that he does. and i would also like to thank my childhood congressman, mr. davis. i am a product from chicago public schools. and i want to thank all of you for all of your supportive education, higher education, historically black colleges and universities and particularly virginia state university. i really appreciate it. as we look forward to increase and improve educational equity, it's important to understand the importance of what a are traditionally called in our society, minorities serving institutions. whether those institutions are hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges, predominantly black institutions or historically black colleges and universities or hbcus of which virginia state university is a member. i am a product of hbcus, but more importantly, it's the family business. my mother and my aunt went to howard university. all right. i went to howard university. just checking. me and my brother and law went to howard university. my wife went to tuskegee university. my sister went to fisk, my other as i say to dillard. my three sister in-laws went to florida university. [ cheers and applause ] i'll tell you. can't take them nowhere, right? nowhere. my son took classes at bethune cookman university. before he began his career at morehouse college. my daughter attended hampton before she transferred to virginia state university where she is now. so hbcus are important. and that's one-and-a-half generations. and i'm talking about the impact it has on an entire family, on an entire community. and so when we look to continue to have the conversation about improving educational equity, it's important not to forget what has helped to move the needle for almost 150 years, right? that our institutions have been on the forefront of black higher education and educational equity for our entire existence. and whether that means partnering with local school districts, whether it means training the next generation of teachers and next generation of leaders, our universitys have always overproduced or always been overrepresented, in terms of the number of professionals they graduate. and so i'm proud, and i'm happy that we live in a country now where so many of our young people have the choice to go where they want to go. i think it is fantastic. and i believe that the choice of a college or of a university is an intensely personal choice that must be made with family and for those who make the choice to go to whatever institution they choose to, i applaud them. and i support them. but i believe that every young african-american young person should have an hbcu on their list when they are considering college. [ applause ] now, again, i'm not telling you where to go. but i'm saying, everyone should have it on their list so they can look at it, they can really look at it and compare it to other schools and make the choice that's best for them and their family. so -- now, what can we do to make sure we continue to provide quality access and opportunity for young people? first, we have to make sure that we continue to support the dreams of young people by increasing the pell grant, increasing the amount of it, increasing when it can be used, having it tied better to inflation so that more young people can have access to college and be able to chase their dreams. if young people can chase their dreams, can reach the american -- if they can go back to their community where they came from and have an opportunity to make a difference with their college degree, well then we're doing something. i think second we have to make sure that we support the institutions, whether those institutions are private or public. whether these institutions are four-year or two-year, whether they're hbcus or predominantly white institutions but institutions committed to providing quality access and opportunity. committed to providing educational justice for our young people. we have to support those institutions, whether it with be federal dollars or state dollars or our own dollars or corporate dollars. we have to make sure that those institutions are supported. why? because if those institutions aren't supported, if hbcus aren't here, see, there is no choice. see, there has to be a choice. i am proud of dalexia ma triculating through cornell and i wish her nothing but the best. but when she is coming to make her decision, she can't choose one or the other. and so whether you attend an hbcu or not, whether you attend a minority serving institution, it's important we all ban together to make sure our children have that choice to chase their dream. the first step, the first step towards greatness. the first step towards excellence is a chance or an opportunity, and those institutions that are in the business of doing that, i believe, are on the forefront of creating america's new economy. thank you very much. [ applause ] i am john brittain. i thank the righteous house of representative member bobby scott for hosting this discussion on education. i call him my congressman, although i live in alexandra, virginia. that is five numerical legislative districts away from his district. but i still claim congressman scott for his tremendous work for civil rights in the role as the ranking member of the house, education and work force committee. i also salute the many distinguished panel members for their depth and their breadth of knowledge about the scope of the subject of this diversity from brown to fisher. i was too young to enlist in the brown legal struggle. but i was trained by lawyers on the brown team about school segregation and integration, such as my mentor, professor herbert o. reid, the distinguished professor at howard university school of law. and my fellow connecticut nutmeger, the state's nickname. in 63 years since brown, the legal education community and the political struggle for equity in education has focused on the remedy to eliminate the sins of hyper segregated schools, compounded today by high concentrations of poverty of student families. web dubois, a prophet, predicted in 1906 the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line. the relations of the darker or the lighter races of men, women, in africa, asia, america and islands of the sea. if we are alive or if he were here today, in 2016, i believe dubois would have renewed his prophecy for the 21st century too. today schools are more segregated than in 1954. i will share a little story about northern school segregation in the 1950s, that first exposed me to school segregation. although i did not really know it until i became a law professor at uconn law school. i grew up in nor walk, connecticut, well-known as the hattery for its hat manufacturing. my hometown lies in fairfield county, the so-called gold coast of connecticut, with several highly affluent towns, such as grenich, darien and west port. i was the only african-american student in my elementary school from grades 1 through 6 until my promotion to junior high school in 1956. the norwalk board of education had recently opened a newly built junior high school for grades 7 through 9 in the north end of town within walking distance of my home. at the opposite end in the southern part of norwalk, located along the scenic long island sound sat a quaint, affluent neighbor of homes occupied by nearly all caucasians. although a part of norwalk's municipality, the social, racial and economic status resembled the adjacent town of darien. the norwalk board of education decided to bus the white school children to the new west rock junior high school about seven miles, completely across town, over a draw bridge, up a steep hill with slippery surfaces during inclement weather. these white children bypassed the junior high school been the neighborhood zone. they were within the neighborhood zone, and only two miles away in a six to eight-minute drive time, and named after famous founding scholar and inventor. why didn't the students attend benjamin franklin junior high school? the reasons were visibly racial, but i did not recognize this fact until 22 years later, armed with a law degree. west rock's junior high school comprised a student population of nearly all white students while in contrast benjamin franklin of black students. most come from housing developments. in my civil rights advocacy and scholarly writings, i cite true stories that the protest to say school busing by mainly caucasians during the school desegregation cases was in the words of several civil rights leaders, not really about us, but the bus, as african-american students. and not the bus, but us. today, race, ethnicity, for example latinos and latinas, together with high concentrations of poor children, special needs children, english as a second language, and students with disabilities represent the lost gap in k-12 education and beyond. the brain trust title, brown to fisher, increasing diversity to improve equity, essentially asked the question, what is the best remedy to close the so-called achievement gap? with 45 years of my legal experience, devoted to school improvement, the answer is clear. in the final part of the title of the brain trust, offers the remedy. school diversity and school integration. i believe in the educational and other benefits of school diversity as a remedy to reduce school segregation and improve student achievement. in fact, i begin to close with a shameless self promotion that i want to call your attention to an upcoming national coalition of school diversity, ncsd's fourth annual conference entitled "the struggle that must win. advancing school integration through activism, through youth voice and through policy reform." i am a founding member of this in new york city on october 19th through 20. it is expected to bring together over 400 people from across the country to discuss and strengthen strategies for reducing racial and social and economic isolation in elementary schools and secondary schools. the conference focuses on empowering communities and the next generation of leaders. the social and economic benefits of racially and socially economically integrated schools are well-documented, in addition to helping to narrow the achievement gap, research shows that students attending integrated schools are better equipped for a global economy, have improved civic attitudes towards democratic participation, and demonstrate enhanced critical thinking and problem-solving skills. despite the overwhelming research on the benefits of diverse environments, segregation, which is closely tied to educational equities, is a persistent challenge in our nation's public schools. finally, i leave you with a quote by former connecticut supreme court justice, ellen ash peters, who wrote the majority opinion and a landmark school desegregation case decided by a state and not by the federal courts in 1996. and further quoted from an extremely significant decision in a school case by the state of new jersey supreme court. although the constitutional basis for the plaintiff's claim is the deprivation that they themselves are suffering, that deprivation potentially has an impact upon them. the entire state and its economy. not only its social and cultural fabric, but on its material well-being. on its jobs. industry and business. economists and business leaders say that our state economic well-being is dependent on more skill workers. technically proficient workers. literate and well-educated citizens. and they point to the urban poor as an integral part of our future economic strength. so it is not just their future depends upon the state. the state's future depends upon them, too. [ applause ] good afternoon. i'm andrew nichols, director for higher education research and data analytics at the education trust. we are an advocacy organization that works to improve educational outcomes for low-income students and students of color. if you want to find out more about our work, you can visit us at www.edtrust.org. that's my shameless plug. i want to thank congressman scott and the cbc for hosting this event and this forum. i'm a data person, so i'm going to just drop some facts, not alternative facts. but i want to start off with telling you about where we were in terms of degree attainment in 1975. so in 1975, 1 in 4 or 25% of young white adults had at least a bachelor's degree. today that number is about 37%. if we're talking about young black adults, we're actually at the same place young white adults were in 1975. just one in four young black adults have a bachelor's degree or more currently. we have come a long way. in 1975, we were at about 10%. so we've made some significant ground work. but we're 40 years behind. and so we have to figure out exactly what did we do to catch up. so so catch up, the first thing we have to do is get more black college -- well, black students into the right colleges. not just college, but into the right colleges. and i'll talk a bit more about that in a second. and the second thing we need to do is ensure that the black students who do go to college actually complete. we have a completion crisis on our hands, and i'm going to share some data with you about that now. so over the past 40 years, we've really done a good job in getting the message out in terms of telling people to go to college. if you look at kind of immediate college going rates for high school graduates, that has gone up for everybody. and so we have done a really good job of that. what you'll see is that these rates have increased by about 10 to 20 percentage points for everyone. black, latino, whites, everyone else. with that said, we still have a lot of work to do in terms of ensuring that black high school students have access to teachers that are qualified. access to college counselors as well as access to rigorous coursework. so we need to do better with that. and we also need to figure out a better way to give working adults pathways to post secondary education. so people who did not go to college initially, they're working -- we need to figure out better ways to kind of give them viable access that's reasonable and affordable. we can't leave these folks behind if we're going to kind of improve degree attainment overall for black students. so although we made these gains in post secondary educational access, like i said, we need to be more nuanced in this go to college message that we pretty much roll out to young folks. not all colleges are created equal. and attending the worst college is a recipe for disaster. it leaves you saddled with debt, you have no degree, and you can't pay it back. and even those that go on to complete, particularly black students accrue a lot of debt. the average black student who receives a bachelor's degree accrues about $27,000 in debt. this is about $8,000 more than what white graduates borrow and owe. now, we also have an issue with where black students are enrolling. and so if you look at the enrollment trends, you'll see that black students are disproportionately enrolling at community colleges, and for-profit institutions like the university of phoenix, strayer, de vie and those. in fall of 2015, about 53% of black students were at those institutions, compared to 43% of white students. community colleges and for-profit institutions are accessible means of access to college, by and large, community colleges are reasonably affordable, but have low completion rates. about one in four black students who enrolls in a community college graduates with either a certificate or some type of degree in six years. that's 25%. this is compared to about 45% for white students. if you look at for-profits, by and large, these institutions are extremely pricey. and they have extremely low completion rates. their completion rates are lower than those at community colleges. fewer than 2 out of 10 black students receive their bachelor's degree within six years at a for-profit institution. and as you remember, i said these institutions are pretty pricey. so when you drop out of a for-profit institution, you have accrued a lot of debt and you have no degree that allows you to get employment to pay that back. and so that leaves you at risk of defaulting on your loan. and for-profits account for 7% of students. but about 35% of loan defaults. in a recent report that we did, a look at black student success, we highlight the graduation rates of black students at nonprofit private institutions and public institutions. and these institutions give black students the best chance for earning a degree. between 40 and 45% of black students graduate with a degree from these institutions. but on average, the black graduation rate trails the white graduation rate by about 20 percentage points. now if you look at institutions, the gaps vary significantly. you have some that have extremely large gaps, but you have about 20% that have very low gaps or no gaps. this tells us what we know. under the right conditions, black students can graduate at rates that are equivalent to their white peers. in the report, we also talk about comparing similar types of institutions. and a lot of our work revolves around this. what we do is compare institutions that enroll the same number of students that have similar resources, that have students from the same socioeconomic background. and that have students with similar levels of academic preparation. and what we do is, we find out that there is oftentimes about 20 to 30 percentage points difference in the graduation rate for these students. we have identified schools 100 miles apart that literally serve the exact same students and have a 30% graduation rate and 50% graduation rate. what we know is that when campus leaders get really serious about students' success and equity, they can improve graduation rates significantly. this requires looking at your data. you've got to figure out what the challenges are, and what the problems are. is it a developmental math course. is it an introductory math course. is it not enough or adequate college advising. or is it an issue with campus climate? i don't know if any of you saw the news slip in "the times" earlier this week about the black students being invited to the college president's house at the university and he thought it would be appropriate to serve them black food while not even asking them what it would be like a black student on that campus. imagine what it would be like to be a black student on that campus amidst all the other things happening on that particular campus. so let me close with this last piece. one final thing that we discussed in our report deals with the underrepresentation of black students and what we would call elite, selective institutions. that tend to have more resources than most. and tend to have high completion rates. this was actually pointed out in the "new york times" article last month that highlighted how black students are more underrepresented now than we were at 35 years ago at top institutions. to me, this is troubling. first, black students deserve the right to attend these institutions, too. these are institutions that prepare our future leaders in business and politics and other aspects of american society. and so these institutions give people a leg up. and we need black students to be in those environments and have access to those networks and resources. second, if we think about it, they're educating our future leaders. it's important for those people to also interact with people from diverse backgrounds and people who have diverse perspectives. as another panelist mentioned earlier, there's a lot of research that essentially connects interacting and diverse learning environments with increases in learning, increases in leadership development, gains in graduation rates and persistence and reduction in bias, which is important right now. so we need to think about who has access to what types of institutions. affirmative action is critical here. we need more affirmative action, not less. thank you for your time. [ applause ] >> thanks so much to the panel. we are going to call up jaylexia clark, a sophomore in industrial and labor relation student at cornell university. she's going to give some remarks and then we'll kick off audience questions. jaylexia? [ applause ] >> can everyone hear me clearly? awesome. okay. i want to thank representative bobby scott for having me, as well as kimberly jones for bringing me on today. and thank you to all of the panelists. i mean, so much of what you were saying, especially you, ms. carla, because i actually was born and raised in tampa, florida, resonated with the story that i'm going to share with you today. you see, public education was never a safe ground for me or any minority student growing up. see, the first time that i was actually reminded of the fact that, hey, i'm black, was in school. the first time being in second grade when my classmates started noticing that my hair was different from theirs and proceeded to hit the curls that framed my face with a lunch box. and then the second time that i was reminded that i am black was fifth grade, when my teacher told me and my black classmates, don't bother to do work. you're all unintelligent bastards, anyway. and the third time i was reminded i am black and would go on to be the moment that fostered my interest in not only going to college but researching the intersection between race and public policy was when i was in middle school applying to go to high school, like ms. carla said. we have a system where -- and kimberly -- you have a system where your high school is dependent upon where you lived. so my mom was on the phone calling, and she was yelling, thinking that raising her octave would make these people see reason. she said, why can't they go to your school? do you know what happens to kids that go to that local school? they don't ever succeed. so what she was referencing was all of the cousins and family friends that i had go to my neighborhood school who ended up as high school dropouts or teenage mothers. my wanted for me to have a quality education. but they turned me down, because i couldn't afford to live in a more expensive neighborhood where perhaps parents understood the political system. and could petition for more funding for their school. or perhaps just because of the property taxes, the school would get more funding overall. and so i said, okay. this is what i wanted to understand. and if i somehow got to college and understood and researched race in public policy and that intersection, maybe i could find the solution to the situation, not only that i was facing, that my community was facing, as well. and then i got to college, and i realized that the fight for justice does not end there. the most recent incident at cornell university demonstrates, where a group of white students proceeded to beat on a black student and call him sand nigger until he was bleeding. this incident and so many before it were reminders that minority students, not only are we susceptible to micro aggressions that then can turn into physical aggressions, we lack equal opportunity to educational resources, and academic and emotional support that was my experience. until i found the ronald e. mcnair scholars program. it was the first time that my identity as a black woman from a low socioeconomic status was not seen as a source of limitation, but was seen as a pillar of strength worthy of supports and acknowledgment. i don't know if you know, but ronald e. mcnair was a black man who is doing his time. the public librarian called the police on him so that he would not have access to the education that a public library could provide. that same black child would go on to reach the stars. thus sparking a federally funded program that would go on to not only symbolize the acknowledgment of our racial past, but the fact that we would try to actively go forward to fight against those racist and classed policies that still affect our educational institutions today. so i'm not sharing my story and the story that is reminiscent of so many other trio of recipients to elicit sympathy. i'm sharing my story in hopes that my passion breeds action into others. because one of the largest injustices that all of you could do today is not support trio programs like the ronald e. mcnair scholars program. thank you. [ applause ] >> all right. thank you. let's -- a long round of applause for that. that was wonderful. thank you for sharing your experience and for promoting the mcnair scholarship program, we appreciate you being here, thank you to all of the panelists for sharing your remarks, your histories, dr. abdullah, you're a correct, that's one thing i failed to mention that is i was a student of the university of florida. i would like to open the floor to questions now from the audience, so please don't be shy, the panelists have a lot to share with you, we would love to hear from you, please come to the mike in the middle of the room. >> thank you, guys. my name is dr. allen arnold, and i'm a science and technology policy fellow. i want to thank you all for my education to work at a government agency. i won't say which one because they told me not to. my question is, being inside government now, the programs i work with is the actual applications or submissions to the federal government. so how do, say, a person working in government increase the applications from schools and teachers from organizations to actually get them to get the funding, is my question. >> we can take responses both from those on on the panel and if you want to address those as well. >> i'll just start and say that i appreciate the question, it was a concern that i know we had when we were at the department. one of the ways that we dealt with it was just getting out there. i mean, one of the things that i did a lot was actually try to attend and participate in not just conferences, but meetings, engagements with administrators, teachers, parents, in order to oej indicate them about our grant programs, because often times people didn't know what they didn't know. and i got up there and tried to make sure that they were familiar with a variety of programs that might have access to, and that was the first step that we took, and we did that religiously, and so it was a concerted effort, i could never find the secretary when i wanted him because he's always gone talking to people, but at the same time, he put all of us out there as well and we were, you know, part of that contingent that was trying to make sure that we knew, that people knew what the grants were offered, both on, you know, not only through, i mean, a variety of different grants that people could obtain and not just for k through 12 but obviously through after school programs, as well as programs that could assist kind of the entire family and so i just -- that was one of the things that we did, so i just think, i don't know what the ability is right now inside government. but things like this and trying to have those one-on-one conversations was particularly important for us as we were trying to make sure that people actually provided useful proposals. >> hello, i am a teacher here in d.c. public schools. [ applause ] before teaching in d.c. public schools i taught in d.c. charter schools and before attending this panel--the charter schools that are doing well, why aren't representative ellison mentioned this idea if the charter schools that are doing well, why aren't they sharing their best practices with our public schools? i have always operated under the guidance if something is going well in the public charter schools if you're starting a public charter school why are not not sharing that with the public schools. how can we start a dialogue between public and public charter schools. >> i think that part of the charter school authorization was lost initially when they start evolving because they came through such a difficult time and were not really accepted. and so a part of the vision for the charter school was that it would be an incubator and innovator and that's why they had a more laxed procedures and rules so they could test things and then infuse it back into the public school system. i think that's going to have to be structured in. it's not going to happen by chance. somebody will have to look at the other part of what kpachart were supposed to do to stop that competition. that's my opinion. anybody else? >> good afternoon. i want to thank you all for your wisdom and insights. my name is tam kindrik. i am a practicing psychologist. my question surrounds home schooling and i wanted to know your opinions about that. in my private practice i actually have the majority of my private clients are black. different ethnic backgrounds. but i see a trend with some of my private parents that's personally all of their kids are males, too. i don't think -- maybe i had one that was female but most are boys that they're home schooling these children. especially the ones -- we have gifted education in florida but these kids are extremely bright and some of the parents have placed their children in private schools and even the private schools they can afford cannot -- they just found a lot of issues. i just wanted to know your thoughts about that because i've had to learn myself about home schooling. and with some of the kids and the parents being able to support them because that is the choice they have taken but i've seen these kids just grow. it's just amazing to me because i think choice does matter. and everything is not right for everybody. >> thank you so much for your comment. we only have time for about two to three more questions. please as you step to the mike if you have a question for the panel that would be great because we would love to hear more from them. thank you. >> well, many of my peers including my sister, many of my peers around 3rd and 4th grade took their black boys out of public school on purpose having significant resource and ability to home school finding that a better way. i think it goes back to the point i was saying, if you start to look at schools, there is a very small percentage of black male teachers. there was something going around social media and going around the news lately about black male teachers and the absence of that and the affect that has on the student through the education system. i witnessed that firsthand and personally supported it when it's my nephew at stake. because the school system has not been set up to serve that population effectively particularly the brighter ones. >> thank you. we'll take the next question. >> i have a different opinion obviously. i think home schooling may have a place for some kids but we're trying to grow our kids into a global society and i think part of what's needed is for them to know how to interact with everyone and i think they may get academic education but they don't get the other part they need and so i'm -- and then the home schooling really started to resegregate to get away from brown v. board. so i have a different opinion on that that i wanted to state. >> thank you so much. next question. >> my name is chris ford. i'm a special assistant on the k-12 policy team at the center for american progress. you spoke earlier about desegregation and how we still talk about that. 60 years after brown versus board of education. i don't know if everybody has been following this. this past i guess couple of months ago in jefferson county alabama we have the gardendale school district which has attempted to -- >> succeed. >> that's a great word for that. from jefferson county school district. how do we like navigate the space where we have a secretary of education who has in some ways says local autonomy is important because not everybody can do things the same way. local agencies weren't always good actors. so how do we combat that when they're doing a disservice to black and brown children? >> on the table outside there are two interesting articles about the gardendale case specifically. one is by nicole jones in "the new york times" magazine and the other by the nation. i would also like to know the gardendale case is ldf's case. >> so i will say this. school districts across the country are experiencing this phenomenon where communities within school districts are looking to succeed from the broader school district. so they can keep their resources within their community. the problem with that statement is that oftentimes it's not just their resources within their community. it's a situation that they have greatfully accepted the resources of the broader school district and as soon as they secure those resources they look to succeed. we're seeing that around the country. erica k. wilson is a professor of law who does a lot of work around school success issues and she says we need to think hard about localism. the idea that local communities should be the provider of the school system and think hard about whether we need to have a more regional school system so at least an entire region are equally allocated. what we are often seeing is the larger school districts like jefferson county that essentially one part of the community which is often divided by racial lines says we are going to succeed and host our own school district. and it's resegregating our schools. this is not new. this is certainly not new. when some cases first got started one of the first things that school districts did when they were faced with brown v. board is say oh, we'll fix this. instead of desegregating. we will make a new school district and draw the lines around the white residence. so now our school district only includes white residents. so when they say we have to desegregate we don't have to do it because that's not a part of our school district. it used to be the case law provided a remedy. i have had cases where the court essentially said you did this to undermine our desegregation efforts, i'm not going to let you do it. you can't have a separate school district. the law has changed. a part of the reason it's able to change is that the public has not paid attention and so it's very important for everyone to educate themselves about these issues because it's happening all across the country. >> i just want to comment on that one question as well. so too often an american education policy we are sacrificing our children on this alter to local control. that's the history of our country in terms of local control. there is great state control at this point over education. but this notion of local control is too often used as a tool to privilege the more advantaged classes and disadvantage black and brown children and poor children. i think we have need to push back on this idea of i write a lot in my work and just going to do a plug for the book i do about pathways to equal education opportunity. we talk about regionalism and also the need for shifting this understanding of education federalism that local control is too often used as an excuse for inequality and injustice and instead we can move toward a system for all children who has equal access to an excellent education still allows for innovation at the local level but doesn't use local control as an excuse. >> can we get the name please? >> sure. "the enduring legacy of rodriguez." charles and i coed itted it together and offers solutions for getting to equal educational opportunities. >> thank you so much. for the audience if you would like to learn more about the gardendale case, the jefferson case and the docket which sadly has over 100 cases active, please go to www.naacpldf.org. we're going to take these last two questions and wrap it up. >> i'm also at the center for american progress. most of our school diversity work now focuses on small scale efforts like voluntary opt-in programs with districts or trying to set up more intentionally diverse charters. i was curious if any of the panelists or speak aers have thoughts on larger scale desegregation efforts and more immediate

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