Burgess Owens: “we are again quite pleased to observe that the bipartisan consensus on education is rolling forward. I heard this…”

“we are again quite pleased to observe that the bipartisan consensus on education is rolling forward. I heard this morning a colleague speak of a new initiative to get Congressmen to go into the classrooms. We have had such initiatives in New York, where they want you to be a principal or teacher for a day, for some time. These kinds of initiatives are minuscule in terms of the overall problem of improving education, but they are important. It is important to have as much contact as possible. I understand over the weekend there was a special conference held in Chicago on education as it impacts upon the black community. Nowhere is it more important than in the black community that we take a close look at what is happening with education. The crisis in education is very much the number one crisis in the African-American community. Anybody who takes any look at what is happening there, any proposals that are put forward, any new initiatives related to the mobilization of the institutions within the African-American community to deal with education, is doing a great service. It ought to be a priority for all of our churches, it ought to be a priority for all of our civil rights institutions, our fraternities, our local community-based organizations. Nothing is more important in the African-American community than education.”