Congressional Black Caucus
"The Conscience of Congress since 1969"
www.congressionalblackcaucus.net

(Washington, D.C.)- U.S. Representative Major Owens (D-NY) will deliver the weekly CBC "Message to America" radio address this Saturday, November 12, 2005. Representative Owens talks about the importance of education and the need to immediately reopen public schools in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

 The CBC "Message to America" is distributed nationwide to the American Urban Radio Network's (AURN) affiliate stations.

            WHO:        U.S. Representative Major Owens (D-NY)

            WHEN:      Saturday, November 12, 2005; 12:06 p.m. EST

            WHERE:   American Urban Radio Network Affiliate Stations

Representative Owens is expected to deliver the following remarks:

"This is Congressman Major Owens, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Education Braintrust.  Today, I have an important education message for America.

 "In a time of unusual natural disasters and fears of terrorism, it is important that we remember that for all of the problems we face, education is a key part of the solution.

"Schools are a basic part of what make our American civilization work.  It is a tragedy that months after Hurricane Katrina there are still no public schools open in New Orleans.

"In the recently introduced Congressional Black Caucus legislation, H.R. 4197, the Hurricane Katrina Recovery, Reclamation, Restoration, Reconstruction and Reunion Act, education is clearly one of the top priorities.  Indeed, most of the other vital goals for rebuilding and reconstruction can not be achieved without a public education system being firmly reestablished.

"The right of Katrina evacuees to return to their homes and to receive assistance to restore their lives, their families and their neighborhoods, is an empty promise if public schools are not rebuilt.

“The CBC legislation mandates federal assistance from pre-kindergarten and Head Start through elementary and secondary education to the reopening of the devastated historically black colleges of Dillard, Xavier and Southern University.

"This emergency focus on education as its highest priority is reflective of the long-term policy of the CBC.  Ten years ago the CBC, speaking for black communities all over America declared an “education state of emergency.”  This position is clearly reflected in H.R. 2178, the student bill of rights legislation. 

“Beyond Katrina, in all of our inner city neighborhoods, there is a critical abundance of the brainpower that America needs for national security and to meet global economic competition.  To develop this invaluable resource, federal assistance to education must be increased from its present eight percent to at least 25 percent.

“Establishing and maintaining a first rate education system will allow the nation to draw on its greatest supply of untapped human resources:  the children of the inner cities.  The same masses that may become wasted, dysfunctional and dangerous could instead become the guarantors of an American way of life that will outlast all of the competing powers.

“With education power we shall overcome.”

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