Latest news with #SummerLee
The Guardian
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Linda McMahon unsure if teaching Black history flouts Trump's anti-DEI policy
Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said Wednesday she is unsure if teaching students about two of the most notorious racist episodes in US history would fall foul of the Trump administration's onslaught against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Testifying before the House of Representatives' education and workforce subcommittee, McMahon appeared uncertain of her facts when confronted by Summer Lee, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania. Lee asked her about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and Ruby Bridges, a civil rights workers who as a six-year-old, braved a screaming mob to become the first Black child to attend a previously all-white school. The exchange occurred after Lee asked her if teaching an African American history course would breach the administration's anti-DEI policies. 'I do not think that African studies or Middle East studies or Chinese studies are part of DEI if they are taught as part of the total history package,' she said. 'So that if you're giving the facts on both sides, of course they're not DEI.' Lee said she was unsure what both sides of a Black history course would be and raised the questions about Tulsa and Bridges, prompting McMahon to respond that she would 'look into them'. That in turn led to Lee asking: 'Do you know what the Tulsa race massacre is?' McMahon replied: 'I'd like to look into it more.' The Tulsa episode is widely seen as the single worst outbreak of racial violence in American history, when an attack on the city's Black community led to the destruction of more than 1,000 homes and business, and the deaths of between 50 and 300 people, according to various estimates. The attack happened during a period of racial tensions marked by the growth of the Ku Klux Klan. Lee then asked if it would be illegal to teach Bridges' book, Through My Eyes, which documents her experience of attending a formerly segregated school in New Orleans in 1960, under the escort of federal marshals. The episode was later depicted in a famous Norman Rockwell painting, entitled The Problem We All Live With. McMahon said she had not read Bridges' book, leading Lee to ask: 'Have you learned about Ruby Bridges?' McMahon – a billionaire former president of World Wrestling Entertainment – tried to respond 'If you have any specific examples you would like to … ' Lee cut her off, saying: 'That was an incredibly specific example.' McMahon was equally vague when asked if schools could be penalized for accurately teaching that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. She said that social studies 'should all be taught accurately' and that 'we should hear all sides' when Lee raised the question in the context of recent changes in Oklahoma, where the state's schools superintendent recently ushered in the introduction of election conspiracy into the curriculum. These include asking students to 'identify discrepancies' in the 2020 poll. McMahon also clashed with the Democratic representative Mark Takano when he challenged her about 'viewpoint diversity' at Harvard, a principle the administration says it wants to enforce to counteract supposed liberal bias. 'Does refusing to hire a Holocaust denier as a member of Harvard's history department faculty count as an ideological limit test?' Takana asked. Replying, McMahon said: 'I believe that there should be diversity of viewpoints relative to teachings and opinions on campuses.'
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Education Secretary Linda McMahon refuses to say if teaching kids that Trump lost in 2020 is ‘illegal DEI'
Donald Trump 's education secretary has refused to say if she believes school curricula that correctly state Joe Biden won the 2020 election amount to ' illegal DEI. ' Secretary Linda McMahon instead repeatedly told House lawmakers on Wednesday that social studies 'should all be taught accurately' and that 'we should hear all sides.' During a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing, Democratic Rep. Summer Lee, of Pennsylvania, repeatedly asked McMahon whether she believes certain lesson plans constitute 'illegal DEI' — referring to the Trump administration's threat to withhold federal funding to schools it believes are engaged in ' illegal DEI practices.' In a heated back and forth, Lee pressed McMahon to say whether curriculum on the 2020 election and African-American history lessons on the Tulsa race massacre and civil rights activist Ruby Bridges are considered 'illegal' diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. McMahon said she would 'look into' them. Asked whether she even knows who and what those people and events are, McMahon fumbled for answers. 'Do you know what the Tulsa race massacre is?' asked Lee, referencing a white mob's bloody destruction of a bustling Black town in Oklahoma in 1921. 'I'd like to look into it more,' McMahon said. 'How about the book Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges?' Lee asked. McMahon said she hasn't read it. 'Have you learned about Ruby Bridges?' said Lee, referring to the first Black child to enter an all-white school in the South during desegregation efforts in 1960. 'If you have specific examples—,' McMahon replied. 'That was an incredibly specific example,' Lee fired back. The congresswoman then asked whether social studies standards that teach that Biden won the 2020 presidential election would also be considered 'illegal DEI.' McMahon said social studies 'should all be taught accurately.' Lee demanded a 'yes or no' answer. McMahon repeated her reply. 'I think I have said we should teach accurately,' she said. 'We should hear all sides.' Lee's questions follow newly established curriculum standards in Oklahoma, where the state's controversial schools superintendent ushered through sweeping changes that introduce 2020 election conspiracy theories into school curriculums. Students will be required to ' identify discrepancies ' in the 2020 presidential election, appearing to amplify Trump's baseless narrative that the election was fraudulent. Students will also learn about 'the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps' and 'an unforeseen record number of voters,' appearing to repeat unsupported claims that bolster conspiracy theories surrounding election results. McMahon is appearing before members of Congress this week to present a budget for a department that the president wants to eliminate entirely. The White House wants to reduce the department's budget by 15 percent in 2026, targeting a range of programs supporting K-12 students and higher education. Advocacy groups fear the cuts will be particularly devastating to students from lower-income families and in rural areas, and 'ultimately harm schools and the students they serve,' according to the School Superintendents Association.
CBS News
29-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Energy Innovation Center hosts hundreds of local leaders working to combat youth homelessness
Hundreds of people gathered inside the Energy Innovation Center Thursday morning to talk about youth homelessness. Leaders say it's a growing issue locally, and some anticipate it will increase nationally as well. The Allegheny County Executive says over 3,400 young people are experiencing homelessness in the county. It's figures like these that are part of why the homeless children's education fund hosted a policy breakfast. The morning was more than just food. "We have a lot of service providers here – we have a lot of other elected officials," County Executive Sara Innamorato said. It's a call to action, with more than 200 people. It's an important time for people like AJ Jefferson. "Right now, we're experiencing a 17% increase in youth homelessness over the previous year's numbers," said Jefferson, the CEO of the Homeless Children's Education Fund. She says the reasons for that are largely economic. People like Congresswoman Summer Lee say there are deeper issues at play, too. "I think oftentimes, when we think about youth homelessness, we think about one issue at a time and not the snowball effect, not how we got here," Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District said. She was one of Thursday morning's speakers. "At least, my message was that we have to make better policy decisions – we have to think about this holistically…" Congresswoman Lee said. Politicians like Mayor Gainey and County Executive Innamorato also wanted to help find solutions. "We have open arms and open ears on how we can embrace the young people, but also listen to them and listen to the providers to make sure that we're delivering the best services possible," Innamorato said. There was Republican representation, too. State Senator Devlin Robinson wanted to listen to concerns he could take to Harrisburg. "Nobody is gonna check anybody's registration whenever they're homeless or in need of help," Robinson, who represents Pennsylvania's 37th district in Harrisburg, said. Jefferson says nearly 47,000 K-12 students in our state have been identified as experiencing homelessness. "With the federal government changing directions and support, we need to figure out in the state, how are we gonna secure the support," Jefferson said. It's support and work that her organization focuses on daily. "We stay in their lives from PreK all the way up to adulthood and career," she said. And now, she's calling on those in this room and beyond to do more to fight the rising problem. "We need to support them – invest your time, invest your resources," Jefferson said. Jefferson says the key to bucking the trend is for the state to allocate funding from its budget towards programs that help combat youth homelessness. She says a lot of that money is drying up from Biden-era COVID relief.
Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Demanding slavery reparations now is proof Democrats have lost the plot
Even for a party as troubled as the Democrats, the decision by a group of lawmakers to introduce a congressional resolution demanding reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans is particularly hairbrained. It's not that African Americans, like myself, do not deserve formal recognition for the centuries of labour our ancestors were forced to contribute to building this nation. But reparations? It's the wrong solution from the wrong party at the wrong time. The specific legislation on the table is not new. Officially known as the Reparations Now resolution, the bill was first introduced back in 2023 by former Representative Cori Bush – then a leading member of the Democrats' ultra-progressive 'Squad', whose best-known figure is New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Last August, Bush was defeated in an unusually-costly Democrat primary race dominated by her aggressive criticism of Israel and its war with Hamas in Gaza. This time, the reparations push is being led by Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee, another vocal Israel-critic and 'Squad' member. 'Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers. We're owed repair, we're owed restitution and we're owed justice,' said Lee at a press conference announcing the bill. Bush, who also attended the event, added: 'For over 400 years … America has been cashing checks written in black blood.' Reparations Now calls upon the federal government to allocate trillions of dollars – $14 trillion in Bush's original version – for reparations atoning for slavery, as well as for the legacies of Jim Crow, housing discrimination and the effects of America's decades-long war on drugs. With African American household wealth still roughly one-sixth that of their white counterparts, according to data from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, few could deny that there is a problem. But Reparations Now is not the plan to address it. Beyond the logistics of such a scheme – funding, eligibility, disbursements – is the timing behind the idea's resuscitation. Lee has made clear that she is picking up where Bush left off as a direct response to the Trump White House's assaults on race-based preference programmes such as DEI. Such thinking was also behind the reintroduction of a similar bill – HR 40 – by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass) and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker in February. HR 40 would establish a federal commission to examine the long-term effects of slavery and explore possible reparations programmes. Pressley was even more biting in her critique of the president and the necessity of reparations now than her fellow Squad-members, branding Trump's second term 'a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids'. While it might make for easy headlines, tying reparations directly to the return of Trump makes no sense. For one thing, the relative poverty of African Americans is nothing to do with the current president: black Americans have been poor under both Republican and Democratic administrations. In fact, many African American leaders, such as Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, believe that Democratic efforts to eradicate poverty among black communities through handouts – most notably President Lyndon B Johnson's 1960s'-era 'Great Society' campaign – have done more harm than good. 'What was hard to survive,' said Scott during his short-lived run for the presidency back in 2023, 'was Johnson's Great Society, where they decided to put money – where they decided to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail. And you can now measure that in unemployment and crime and devastation.' Although Scott was skewered by progressives such as 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones, data from Pew reveals that Scott is likely to be speaking for a not-insignificant proportion of African Americans. Roughly 20 per cent do not support a reparations push, with higher-educated and higher-earning black Americans leading such opposition. Overall, 70 per cent of Americans believe reparations schemes are a bad idea. It isn't particularly difficult to see why. In California, reparations commissions at both the state level and in the city of San Francisco spent years – and millions on research and task forces – but have yet to take any concrete actions. And this in a state that never had slavery. A San Francisco plan was particularly ambitious, floating a $5 million payment to every eligible black resident — a process that the Hoover Institution said would cost every local non-black family $600,000. Unsurprisingly, the scheme has been stalled by budgetary constraints. Although such figures have yet to be considered on a national level, the price tag for bills like Lee's Reparations Now would be difficult to stomach even for most Democrats – and face almost certain legal opposition from Republicans. A modest reparations scheme in Evanston, Illinois, for instance, was sued last year by the conservative group Judicial Watch, which claims that it is unconstitutional because applicants must qualify by race. The programme – which launched in 2022 – provides $25,000 in housing grants to direct descendants of black residents harmed by historic housing discrimination. Rather than focus on reparations schemes that spend decades in development but inevitably go nowhere, Democrats would be better served — and better serve their constituents — fixing their party and focusing on efforts that are actually likely to improve the plight of black Americans. But that would involve confronting some hard facts and making some difficult decisions. Like with their support for preferred pronouns or Pride flags, it's far easier to embrace virtue-signalling and anti-Trump bluster. The Democrats thrive on distraction – and reparations fit this mold perfectly.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pa. congressional Republicans unanimous in support of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'
The U.S. Capitol is pictured on Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) All ten Pennsylvania Republicans voted in support of the massive tax and spending bill that passed the U.S. House early Thursday morning, touting the tax relief, border security and support for working families they said it would provide. Democrats, including seven in the state's delegation, unanimously opposed it. They decried the budget's cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, deficit spending and tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, which Rep. Summer Lee (D-12th District) described as dangerous, 'undemocratic and unjust.' 'I voted no. There's nothing beautiful about a bill that forces families to choose between taking their kids to the doctor or feeding them,' Lee said. 'We will continue organizing, pushing, and holding every policymaker accountable until the needs of working people are prioritized over profits.' But one moderate Pennsylvania Republican said he would keep working to improve the bill. 'As this process proceeds, I will be working closely with the Senate to make constructive changes to this bill, specifically in the energy, workforce, and health portions of the bill so we can strengthen SNAP and Medicaid solvency for the long-term and ensure access for the most vulnerable that truly need assistance,' Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1st District) said. 'This will be a red-line for me before supporting final passage.' His office did not respond to the Capital-Star's request for additional details. The budget reconciliation, dubbed the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' by Republican leaders, passed by a vote of 215-214, with two Republicans, Ohio's Warren Davidson and Kentucky's Thomas Massie, opposed. It will now go to the Senate, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said House Republicans will work with their Senate counterparts toward a goal of winning approval in the upper chamber and getting the bill to President Donald Trump's desk by July 4. The 1,116-page omnibus combines 11 bills that GOP lawmakers voted out of committee this spring. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said the budget, as it stands, would have a 'very real impact' on Pennsylvanians. 'This morning, every single Republican member of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation voted to cut healthcare and food assistance from hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians and speed up the closure of dozens of rural hospitals across our Commonwealth – all while increasing our national deficit by $2.3 trillion,' Shapiro said in a statement. Other Democrats, including Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-4th District), said the deficit would balloon even higher. 'Today, House Republicans passed a bill that sacrifices critical programs for millions of everyday Americans to pay for another tax cut for the rich — blowing up the deficit by an estimated $5 trillion in service of the President's cruel, corrupt purposes,' Dean said in a statement. Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would shift $1 billion in food assistance costs to the state, putting benefits for 140,000 people in question. More than 300,000 Pennsylvanians could lose Medicaid benefits, rolling back efforts to reduce the number of uninsured people and increasing the cost of health care for everyone, Shapiro's statement said. And the cuts to Medicaid could hurt 25 rural hospitals across the state that are already financially struggling and rely on the medical assistance program, increasing the likelihood they could close. 'Any lawmaker in D.C. who thinks the commonwealth can backfill this massive hole they've created is wrong – and these cuts will have real life consequences for Pennsylvanians. As this heads to the Senate for a vote, I hope common sense and a concern for the people of Pennsylvania will prevail,' Shapiro said. Republican members of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation highlighted the bill's provisions to advance the Trump administration's priorities. 'After years of wide-open borders, uncontrolled inflation, and government spending run amok, this budget finally addresses the needs of our community and our country,' Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-7th District) said. H.R. 1 would provide $69 billion to complete border barriers, hire more Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, expand deportation capacity and stop drug and human trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border. Although it includes deep cuts to Medicaid spending, reducing the program by $625 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Republicans including Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-8th District) said the bill would protect the program and ensure tax dollars are used prudently. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE 'During this process, I fought to protect social safety net programs from the waste, fraud, and abuse that have threatened their long-term solvency. By ensuring states are not using Medicaid dollars on illegal aliens, conducting more frequent eligibility checks, and requiring work for able-bodied recipients … we are securing Medicaid for those who truly need it,' Bresnahan said in a statement. He noted the Medicaid work requirements exempt children and seniors, pregnant women, students, disabled veterans and those with medical conditions including mental health and substance use disorders. Rep. Dan Meuser (R-9th District) touted the bill's benefits for businesses and working families that would help improve the nation's economy. 'Passing this bill will increase production so supply better meets demand, thereby reducing inflation. And with lower inflation comes lower interest rates, which leads to greater investment and more American production,' he said in a statement. The legislation would eliminate tax on tips and overtime – among Trump's populist campaign promises – expand the child tax credit from $2,000, and establish savings accounts for newborns. It would also extend provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to benefit manufacturers and small businesses by allowing them to write off research and development costs and bonuses and expanding the small business deduction to 23%, Meuser's office said.
