Brad Miller: “President Bush recently announced his opposition to the affirmative action plan used by the University of Michigan in…”

“President Bush recently announced his opposition to the affirmative action plan used by the University of Michigan in admissions. It is troubling that the academic achievements of white students and African American students at Michigan are markedly different, but it is troubling for a reason that President Bush apparently did not consider. It is troubling that almost a half century after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education there remain such disparities in the academic achievements of white students and African American students. Mr. Speaker, the public schools are where we deliver on the promise of equality of opportunity. The public schools must deliver on that promise to white children; to black children; to children whose parents do not speak English in their homes; to the children of parents who care passionately about their children, who read to them every night, who join the PTA and volunteer at their children's schools; to the children of parents who are themselves children and are as little prepared to be parents as their parents were before them. Just days after President Bush announced his opposition to the University of Michigan's affirmative action plan, he announced his proposed budget. We see from that budget what he would do to close the achievement gap so that universities can achieve a diversity in population without affirmative action plans like Michigan's. Mr. Speaker, he would do very little.…”