these young people will hit the system again if they do not have the systems and the structures in place.

we are closing the door to opportunity for future students.

Today, this Department of Education is openly hostile to civil rights enforcement and school integration.

Is this the education you would want for your child?

Is this the education I would want for my child? If I couldn't answer yes to that every single time, then I had to figure out something different to do.

I remind everyone that we have a responsibility to educate 50 million plus students, not just one million.

I remember that while this painting depicts something that happened 60 years ago, it could truly talk about what we are going through today.

The Department's Office of the General Counsel has advised that the Secretary has discretion to interpret the broad language of the statute as to its permissiveness regarding the purchase of firearms and the training and use of firearms.

You have the authority to say that we cannot use Federal funds to arm teachers.

When we are talking about gender identity as a choice and it is not innate and it can be changed at any time, we would never question someone's religious beliefs which is also a choice and not innate and can be changed at any time.

I have seen higher rates of discipline amongst students who identify as LGBTQ because the adults do not know how to respond.

We can do better. I know we can.

While this 3 month time limit for SNAP benefits for ABAWDs in theory should only impact adults who do not have children, in practice, it will inevitably and disproportionately impact children and young people.

I have seen that. Because, in my experience, these young people do cycle back into the system.

Instead of punishing people for being poor or for being in foster care, we need to further invest in job training and education as a way out of poverty.

What are the long-term social and economic cost effects of ripping away this safety net for food security for young people aging out of the foster care system?

By ripping away a lifeline of an already vulnerable population, this Administration is making yet another unconscionable attack on young people and poor people.

This would translate to about 26,000 people in Connecticut automatically becoming vulnerable to losing the Federal help they need to simply put food on their tables.

Hunger is merely a symptom of poverty.

we are deeply concerned that the proposed changes to further restrict ABAWD's ability to receive SNAP benefits would cause significant hardship to very low-income individuals

the loss of food assistance will likely create additional financial and emotional stress making it harder to achieve this goal.

the proposed rule also circumvents the will of Congress by attempting to implement, through executive action, policy changes Congress rejected

In my community, in the city of Waterbury, where I taught, generally, that was associated with addiction, and trauma from addiction that really reverberated out into the entire family.

I guess what I want to make sure--and, Ms. Jackson, my question is for you--being that we know that poverty is a risk for many of these young people, addiction is a risk, when we are responding to referrals for child maltreatment, how can…

In Waterbury, Connecticut, where I was a teacher, last year, we had 85 opioid-related deaths, and in most of those families there are children who are coming to school.