Donna Edwards: “Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution to congratulate the Urban Prep Charter Academy on the wonderful…”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution to congratulate the Urban Prep Charter Academy on the wonderful accomplishment of sending every one of their 107 graduates on to college this year. For some students, getting an education is a simple feat, but for many students in our urban centers, that is not true, and this is the focus community, the population, that is served by Urban Prep. Now, I knew Urban Prep some time ago. Their motto is 'We Believe.' I want to say here that I believe in Urban Prep and in the phenomenal work that they do to reverse troubling graduation and completion rates among African American men in Chicago's urban centers. We can learn many lessons from the Urban Prep experiment, and indeed, that experiment is being looked at across the country, even in communities like the one I represent in Maryland's Fourth Congressional District.”