Lynn C. Woolsey: “I am fed up for bringing it up on a suspensions calendar. I am not going to vote against this bill because of what is in…”

“I am fed up for bringing it up on a suspensions calendar. I am not going to vote against this bill because of what is in the bill, I am going to vote against it because of what is not in the bill. As a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I had planned to offer an amendment to Fed Up when it was marked up in the full committee. However, rather than consider any Democratic amendments, the committee mark was cancelled and this bill was never considered at the committee level. Had it been, I would have offered an amendment to ensure that vocational education programs obey civil rights laws. Just a few weeks ago, The Washington Post and other newspapers reported on a recent survey that revealed pervasive gender segregation in vocational and technical education programs all around the country. The survey found that women remain clustered in classes which lead to traditionally female jobs, such as cosmetology, child care or fashion technology. On the other hand, the classes in carpentry, electronics, and automotive programs were 85 percent male. So women are trained for jobs as hairdressers, earning a median hourly wage of $8.49 an hour, while males get work as plumbers who earn an hourly wage of $30 an hour.”