Adriano Espaillat: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.J. Res. 58, which would gut…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.J. Res. 58, which would gut States' teacher preparedness programs. This rollback is just one of many attempts by Republicans to dismantle the Department of Education by stripping its oversight and enforcement authority. The Trump administration has already made it clear its lack of regard for public education by picking an unqualified nominee to head the Department, and congressional Republicans are falling right in line by attempting to remove important rules to improve teacher preparedness. This rule came into place as part of the bipartisan reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. The reauthorization brought consensus measures to improve teacher training. But given the opportunity, Republicans are willing to forego public education all together by using the CRA to prevent the Department from overseeing State-led initiatives. And there is the crux of it. These initiatives are State- led and allow great levels of flexibility, provisions that Republicans championed during reauthorization. Now, they want to take advantage of an obscure congressional provision, used only once in our history prior to this Congress. This will tie the hands of future administrations from improving the transparency and quality of teacher preparedness programs.…”