All eyes were front and center as the new teacher, dressed in school colors, walked to the head of a world history class at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. With a no-nonsense attitude and a brief acknowledgment that Dunbar was indeed her alma mater, the teacher launched into a discussion–complete with charts and graphs for every student on federal funding for education.
The teacher was District of Columbia Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and her visit was duplicated in several cities by Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members who went back to school on October 23 to high-light support for national education funding.
The event, held in conjunction with the National Commission for African American Education,was proposed by Congressman Major Owens (D-N.Y.) at the 1995 CBC Education Braintrust. It is a response to proposals to eliminate the Education Department (ED) and reduce federal funding for education by an unprecedented $3.7 billion.
“Never before in the history of education funding has Congress posted a bill that gave less money to education,” Norton told her class. The final appropriations bill lopped $455 million off the education budget for fiscal year 1996. “That final bill robbed the young people in the District of Columbia,” Norton said.
