By now, the Trump-Pence Administration has become notorious for appointing and nominating public officials who will work with them to systematically undermine decades of hard-fought civil rights victories. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is an obvious example. Among other outrages, she has rescinded guidance protecting transgender students and announced her intention to ignore much of the harassment that threatens their safety and freedom to learn. She also rescinded Title IX guidance protecting students who experience sexual harassment and assault, while granting special rights to students accused of perpetrating sexual violence. And she appears to be planning even broader attacks on Title IX and targeting the discipline guidance aimed at stopping the flow of students of color and students with disabilities into the school-to-prison pipeline.

But DeVos can’t carry out this agenda all by herself. So far, she’s been helped by Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Candice Jackson, who herself became notorious for spreading sexist myths about campus rape survivors. And now to replace Jackson President Trump has picked Kenneth Marcus, a nominee whose record demonstrates that he cannot be trusted to protect the students most likely to experience harassment and discrimination.

Tell Congress to Vote NO on Kenneth Marcus
The Senate must defend vulnerable students by rejecting Kenneth Marcus’ nomination to lead the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) noted when Marcus testified before Congress, his record and testimony suggest that he is likely to do “as little as possible to protect as few students as possible.”

• He applauds the Department’s ongoing attacks on women and girls’ right to learn free of harassment and violence.
• He denies the existence of systemic discrimination that robs students of color of crucial opportunities to learn and succeed, invoking antiquated stereotypes about Black families and communities to explain disparities in student outcomes.
• He has repeatedly revealed his indifference to lesbian, gay, transgender, and nonbinary students’ rights under federal law, and he similarly rejects undocumented students’ educational rights despite the fact that those rights have been affirmed by the Supreme Court.
• During the brief period when he held this role under President George W. Bush, he allowed separate and unequal sex-segregated educational programs to flourish, despite abundant evidence that such programs don’tboost student achievement, but do reinforce damaging gender stereotypes.

As the U.S. Department of Education continues to attack vulnerable students’ civil rights, the Senate must demonstrate that it takes civil rights seriously, and refuse to rubber-stamp a nominee whose words and actions reveal that he doesn’t. Tell your senators to oppose Kenneth Marcus’ nomination now.

Instead of fulfilling OCR’s obligation to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all students are free to learn regardless of their identity or circumstances, Marcus has shown he would at best ignore vulnerable students’ needs— and at worst, might actually punish schools for trying to meet those needs and rectify generations of educational injustice. A person this hostile to the notion of civil rights has no business leading an Office for Civil Rights. Tell your senators to reject his nomination.

Sincerely,

Emily Martin
Vice President for Education & Workplace Justice
National Women’s Law Center

We the Resistance is our fight to protect our rights and freedoms and to defend the most vulnerable among us through powerful collective action. Every conversation you have with a loved one about the issues important to you, every call you make to Congress, every rally you attend is a part of that resistance. Join us — sign on to the We The Resistance manifesto.