Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I often don't come to the floor
to speak, but I felt compelled on this particular bill, H.R. 5, to talk
about it. Why? Because I represent a district that has 90 percent of
the public schoolchildren who live and receive reduced or free lunches
and it is important for me to just state for the record that I think
that a bill that takes away funding from public schools--targeted
funding for low-income and poverty students--would be an abomination.

This bill is here because of the work of Lyndon Johnson 50 years ago.
It was a civil rights bill, frankly. Why? It was an acknowledgment that
socially disadvantaged children needed additional help. Somewhere along
the line, Mr. Chairman, we have lost as a nation the notion of ``our
children.''

It is always ``my child,'' not ``our children.''

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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Until the parents of more affluent children
see that their lives are intrinsically linked to children who are poor,
we as a nation will never be the beloved community that so many civil
rights leaders fought and died for.

I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for the opportunity to
speak on this underlying bill, and I want to urge my colleagues to vote
against H.R. 5.

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