On the recordMay 23, 2023
Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my deep concern and outrage that extreme Republicans are moving to cut education through McCarthy's default on America act at the same time that extreme Republicans are banning books in our libraries and classrooms across our country. Sadly, last semester alone, there were 1,477 instances of book banning. Sadly, these efforts chill speech. They are part of a national education scare, a campaign to foment anxiety and anger with the goal of suppressing free expression in public education. America is not Communist China or authoritarian Russia that ban books or Nazi Germany that burns books. Indeed, Anne Frank's ``The Diary of a Young Girl'' is now a banned book. Over 70 percent of Americans oppose book bans. Americans know education is about learning. It is not about censorship. A country that does not know its history is bound to repeat it. ____________________
