Public Education is A National Security Issue

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOWMAN. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to discuss my amendment to the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, Rules Committee amendment No. 778.

My amendment is very simple. It would reinvest $157 billion from our defense budget into our public education system.

Many of my colleagues may balk at that number. However, I remind everyone that we spend more on our national defense than the next 10 countries combined. We are secure as a nation in our military might because we have consistently supported the military industrial complex.

Where we have neglected mightily is another pillar of our democracy, which is our education system and our public school system.

As we continue to neglect our public schools, we are harming our most precious and most vulnerable resource, which is our Nation's children. Historically, this neglect is well-documented from redlining communities, underfunding public housing, underfunding green spaces, and underfunding schools in historically marginalized communities.

Before coming to Congress, I had the pleasure and privilege of working in our public schools for 20 years. I served as an elementary school teacher in the South Bronx before becoming a high school guidance counselor and dean of students, where I served for 3\1/2\ years.

Realizing that our schools weren't doing enough to unlock the unlimited potential of our kids, I wrote a proposal and opened up a public middle school in the northeast Bronx, where I served for 10\1/2\ years as its principal.

Our mission as a school was simple: Listen to our students. Listen to our families. Respond to the community's needs because that is what is necessary to unlock the magic, magnificence, and brilliance of our kids. I scoured the Earth to find additional grants and resources to bring into our school.

We didn't just invest in traditional curriculum, we invested in the holistic development of our kids. Now, what does that mean?

That means that we made sure that we focused on language arts, we focused on mathematics, we focused on science, but we also focused on STEM and STEAM, music, the arts, play, gym, mental health supports, food security, adult education, and everything to ensure the full development of our students and support for their families.

Mr. Speaker, I have to say to the House Chamber and to America, education, I argue, is the number one national security issue in our country. Because of historic miseducation, separation, and segregation across race and class, we continue to have these battles rooted in sexism, racism, and discrimination. We continue to have an economy that doesn't work for all Americans. When we invest in education, we invest in shared prosperity from rural America to urban America and everything in between.

Imagine a Nation where every single child, regardless of learning style, background, or race had access and opportunity to the American Dream.

When we invest in education, we have better healthcare, economic, and obviously, education outcomes. We deal with the issue of public safety. We deal with the issue of mass shooting. We deal with the issue of mass incarceration.

Invest in our children. Invest in our schools. Let us stop neglecting this critical area. We need to invest in this space in order to save our democracy and take it to the next level.

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