50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a significant milestone that occurred 50 years ago this week.

On April 11, 1965, President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The enactment of the ESEA followed the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, guaranteeing all children equal educational opportunities. Unfortunately, communities with high concentrations of poverty have never enjoyed equal rights. So, for the last 50 years, the ESEA has remained the single-largest Federal resource for schools that teach our most vulnerable students.

If we are to keep our promise of equal educational opportunity for all, then we must redouble our efforts to level the public education playing field by ensuring that all students have both the resources to achieve academic excellence and the promise of action to intervene when their academic needs aren't being met.

This year, we need to renew ESEA in order to bring our education system into the 21st century, and we must not waver in our commitment to basic civil rights and education that we made 50 years ago this week.