On the recordMarch 23, 2023
All of us can agree that the most precious gift God can give us is our children. I am a parent of four children-- four children--who all attended public education, K-12. As a parent, I was active and participated in the local school board meetings, teacher-parent conferences, and I was involved with the local PTA because it was my responsibility to know what was going on in my children's life, especially educational life. All of us here as Americans, regardless of party affiliation, can agree that protecting our children is one of our most important responsibilities here in Congress. I agree with my colleagues across the aisle that we need to protect all students, especially, I would say, undocumented students, some of the most vulnerable students in our society. Last night, I introduced an amendment that would bar any local educational agency, State agency, elementary school, or secondary school from requesting or disclosing a student's immigration status. Schools, I would say, are the one place in our society that students should feel safe. My amendment would advance this principle. It would say that our students are safe in their schools. Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues across the aisle would have voted for my amendment last night, then they would have voted for safety for all of our students in school. Yet, they didn't do that. By failing to vote for my amendment, they left our most vulnerable students hanging.
