NEWS: Senator Blunt Rochester Joins Markey, Colleagues to Demand Education Department Withdraw Proposed Rule Gutting Equity Assistance Centers

Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) joined Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), top Democrat on the Primary Health and Retirement Security Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and other colleagues in writing to Linda McMahon, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, to condemn the agency's efforts to gut the Equity Assistance Centers (EACs), which provide free technical assistance to school districts, states, and communities to prepare, adopt, and implement plans to desegregate public schools in compliance with federal civil rights law.

The Department of Education's decision to dismantle the EACs with its proposed rule, "Rescinding the Equity Assistance Center Program Regulations," upends a longstanding congressionally funded program and joins similar actions from the Administration in destroying civil rights enforcement infrastructure. As a result, schools, students, and parents will be left without these resources at a time of persistent segregation and growing inequality.

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, "As with other efforts to erode federal civil rights oversight and enforcement, ED's proposed rule is 'like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.' While the rule claims to offer 'flexibility' in desegregation compliance efforts, the Administration's actions reveal that its goal is to throw away the umbrella, not find a raincoat instead. We urge the Department to withdraw this proposed rule, ensure that the federal government upholds the civil rights of all students, and work to ensure all students can attend schools that are not segregated."

Co-signers of the letter include Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

The full letter can be found here.