Um, I’m going tell you had another rough day on Capitol Hill. That dumb ass Linda McMahon. Y’all know she the education secretary. Her ass came from uh WWE. This is what happens when you get a a wrestling person and you put their ass over the education department.
So, she got her ass lit up today in the House Education and Workforce Committee. Uh, when Congresswoman Summer Lee of Pennsylvania lit her ass up on the crackdown of so-called illegal DEI programs. Roll this [ __ ]. Um, I think that in very many ways we’ve been talking around a lot of the issues with this administration. So, I to be honest and and to be very clear, I want to say that this administration has undoubtedly revived the culture of racism we haven’t seen since the Jim Crow era.
They’ve made it clear that open attacks on black and brown and other marginalized communities is not just tolerated, but it’s encouraged. So when they call for removing of equity and inclusion and diversity and accessibility from schools in favor of quote unquote traditional American values, it’s indistinguishable from postwar civil uh post civil war south advocating to write history with the lost cause narrative to censor truths about slavery or as they disappear students who write the senting op eds.
It’s reminiscent of the suppression of abolitionist newspapers. And this department’s financial aid policies hearken back to a time when higher education was reserved for affluent, well-connected, and predominantly white students. So, I have a question.
I have some questions, excuse me, about why this department is taking its leads from Jim Crow. Secretary McMahon, you’ve claimed that you want to drastically reduce the already very small federal role in education. Uh, and also that you will not cut Title 1A funding. That is still your position. Correct.
Correct. Thank you. I’d like a yes or no answer. Do you believe your April 3rd attempt to revoke Title 1A funding from states unless a signed uh unless they signed a certification of compliance with your political viewpoint was consistent with giving states more control over education? There’s been no reduction in funding for uh title 1A as of now.
There has not been yet but again and it is not in going forward in the budget. So you believe that that’s so you do okay yes or no. Is title 1A funding actually secure for every school district and state that currently receives it? Or is your goal to make title 1A conditional on states refusing to provide students of color, LGBTQA students, students with disabilities or other marginalized students opportunities to participate in diverse, inclusive, equitable, and accessible learning environments.
No, that’s what I answered.
1A funding is intact. Okay. So let’s talk about so-called illegal DEI as you all have called it. phrase you’ve continually bring up uh that I’m still unclear on, especially after three federal judges have preliminarily ruled that your illegal DEI guidance is likely unconstitutional and uninforceable, illegal as it were. Uh Secretary McMahon, during your confirmation hearing, you were asked uh by Senator Chris Murphy if an African-American history class violated the administration’s position on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
You said you’d like to look into it. Um you’ve been on the job for a few months month months now.
Have you been able to look into it? I do not think that uh uh African studies or Middle East studies or Chinese studies are part of DEI if they are taught as part of the total history package. Uh so that if you’re giving the facts on both sides, of course they’re not DEI, I don’t know what both sides of African-American history would be.
Well, if African-American history is part of part of certainly, but what we recognize throughout public ed what we recognize throughout education is that a course is only one year or one semester, it would be impossible to teach African history and say European history at the same time. Do you not agree that it makes sense that there would be separate courses for these uh courses of study and has happened throughout history.
We’re able to do it not just in history courses, we’re able to do it with different types of literature courses or different types of music courses. One won’t learn one wouldn’t learn about Baroque music and and necessarily have to also learn about African drumming at the same time, right? We can separate those courses.
Yes, we can. And I think just as we teach US history is a separate course. Certainly. So you do not agree. So you do agree that African-American cultures and African history should not be eliminated from courses, particularly AP African history.
Well, I think that African history can certainly be taught and not be considered a DEI course. Oh, thank you. I have a few other examples that I would like to your thoughts on. Simple yes or no. Um, if this is a de illegal DEI, an example, would you say that it would be an illegal DEI for a lesson plan on the Tulsa race massacre?
I’d have to get back to you on that.
Do you know what the Tulsa Race Massacre is? I’d like to look into it more and get back to you on it. Okay. So, uh, I look forward to that.
How about um the book Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, for instance? I haven’t read that. Have you learned about Ruby Bridges? If you have specific examples you like that was a specific example. I’ll be very happy.
It was an incredibly specific example. I named a speific questions and I will look into it and get back to you on the How about a school having a voluntary celebration for Pride Month? Well, I think that um voluntary. Well, let’s make sure that in our schools we’re looking No, it’s not. Okay.
Uh how about social studies standards that teach President Biden won the 2020 election? I think our school our studies should all be taught accurately. Yes or no? I think our studies should No. No.
No. The question was, do you believe that social studies standards that teach that President Biden won the 2020 election is an illegal DEI? Yes or no? I think I have said we should teach accurately.
We should be No, you have not answered the question.
I don’t understand why you’re incapable of answering. I’ve not given you the answer you want. No, I want the answer. Whatever your answer is, I just gave you the answer. No, the answer is yes or no.
No, the answer is I The answer is yes or no. Gentle ladies, thank you so much. I yel back. Yeah. Damn.
Well, she don’t know who the Ruby Bridges is. She don’t know about Tulsa. Her her illiterate ass. But it it got better. Then Congresswoman Johanna Hayes of Connecticut want to end on the fun.
And mind y’all, Johanna Hayes is a former teacher, national teacher of the year. roll that [ __ ]. It’s interesting. I took a lot of notes. I had prepared questions, but I think I’m going in a very different direction.
Um, we’ve heard other colleagues talk about the NAPE scores, and I heard you say that the president was angered and embarrassed by these, and I think we all should be, but when you disagregate those scores, they clearly show that low-income students score significantly lower than their white and higher income peers.
And that is mostly in part to ongoing disparities in educational access and quality, which makes much of what I’m hearing today that much more relevant. You mentioned Connecticut. We both come from the state of Connecticut. Connecticut relies on property taxes to fund education.
And we have the large one of the largest income gaps in the nation. Which means by design or default, low-income students face multiple challenges, including limited access to resources and opportunities outside of schools, which is why I don’t understand many of the decisions made in this budget. One of my colleagues asked um about collecting data on family composition and background. The Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, is mandated by law to do that.
I was pleased to hear you say that states do not I mean the federal the department of education does not control curriculum instruction instructional materials the teachers that are hired which makes your words contradictory because every argument you have is to put local control back into the into the states but states already have local control as anyone who has any knowledge or background of education would already know the role of the department of education would be the civil rights enforcement of those local controls, which again, the irony of this budget zeroing out American history and civic education programs when you couldn’t even answer a question about Ruby Bridges or the election of President Biden, which are as basic as it gets.
So, I really really don’t understand it. But you are making the argument for me because when you respond to questions from my colleagues by saying that sounds like an issue for state legislators. That is why the office of civil rights is necessary because state legislators made the decision that Ruby Bridges did not have the right to a free and appropriate highquality public education. So you, Madam Secretary, are actually making the argument for the role of the department, not to dictate local curriculum instruction or instructional materials, but to make sure that those things are carried out by the department. I mean that states follow the law, that they are doing those things.
So 49 million children in this country receive public education services. About 3 million children are in charter schools. there are not enough charter school slots. So, my questions are mainly focused on what about those other 46 million children. So, I’m going to I mean I it it’s mind-blowing.
I hear you talk about safety, keeping students safe on school campuses, but not a word about the 390,000 students who have been affected by gun violence.
I was in the classroom on the day Sandy Hook happened and the federal government came in with almost $2 million to rebuild that community and provide programs for the surrounding communities. In your opening, I heard you mention uh student athletes and LGBTQ students twice, not one word. And even when my colleague asked you if you thought it was a public health crisis, you can’t answer questions that affect the majority of students. So, I’m not really sure.
I mean, I try to I I am an educator by nature. I try to be supportive of what the Department of Education does because I need for you to succeed for my students to succeed. But when you come in and say your final mission is to eliminate the department, it it says to me that the 46 million children that are not receiving services do not matter.
I’ve ran out most of my time, but this bill defunds literacy programs, eliminates 21st century community learning center, eliminates preschool grants for children with disabilities, eliminates uh uh reduces funding for career and technical education, like all of these things. I’m going to ask you two really quick questions.
Do you think that Holocaust education in our schools is a DEI program? There’s no card for that. That’s just yes or no. I can look at whatever card I want.
Holocaust education.
Is it a DEI? You can have a press conference to say whatever you want. I just need a quick answer to this. You’re soliloquated. Is Holocaust because this is my time.
Is Holocaust education a DEI program? No. Is African-American studies a DEI program? I think I answered that with one. I’m asking it again.
We should be just yes or no. We should be able to teach courses. My point is they are DEI programs both of them because students need diversity, equity, and inclusion to understand their environments.
So both Holocaust education and the teaching of African-American uh history are important, which is why the state of Connecticut requires it in our social studies curriculum. You’re talking out of both sides of your mouth.
You can’t support one without supporting the other. looking at what happens in the schools and actually deferring to teachers, parents who are on curriculum committees, local boards of education in states who actually do the hard work. The gentle lady, listening to what they say would be incredibly helpful in this world. But it’s time to move on and back.
Recognize.
This was the early 90s. Somebody got ether. Dagri, Roland, that I I am I am a proud educator and I’m so proud of Representative Hayes. That was a beautiful breakdown. And not only it was a beautiful breakdown.
It was an amazing case for why diversity, equity, and inclusion is a cornerstone of American education so that all students have windows into other worlds and mirrors to look back at themselves. I was I’m I’m sitting here still kind of like speechless at how beautiful Representative Hayes made that case and also a little bit dumbfounded that Secretary uh you know our Secretary of Education was a little bit dumbfounded too in what she does not know and what information knowledge she isn’t carrying within herself. had she perhaps had a more well-rounded education, she would know about Ruby Bridges. she perhaps had a more well-rounded education that included black brown people that included the true information about uh Nazism and the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors, maybe she would have been able to answer some of those questions that were presented and she would know about Tulsa and Greenwood and the atrocities that have happened to American citizens on American soil that don’t look like her and that don’t come from her soio economic class and that don’t come from her economic background.
Andrew Yeah.
I mean, you know, the the sad part is is that we’re dealing with an educational system that we’re going to have to deal with over the next 15 years. What she does over the next four years is going to have such a huge reverb for the next generation that it it’s it’s just mindblowing. And the fact that she gets up there and she doesn’t even really have much of a history lesson before, right? No one can pass her a note card and say, “Oh, Ruby Bridges, you got to remember, you know, desegregate.” I mean, the the the g that she’s going into these meetings unprepared.
And it’s just okay because that’s what we’re expecting from this administration and all of the heads of these agencies is to go into these meetings and congress and to have absolutely no idea to fall back on well I’ll get back the old I’m going back to you later and you know we’ll figure we never get back to them. we never get an answer and then we’re asked a a a very simple question and who won the 2020 election and there’s not even a a a direct answer to that.
That’s the type of administration that we’re dealing with. Hello, I’m Isaac Hayes the third, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Listen to what I’m about to tell you.
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