CORY A. BOOKER sure soa United States Senate February 22, 2018 Kenneth L. Marcus, Esq. 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 1025 Washington, DC 20006 Dear Mr. Marcus, I write to you regarding your pending nomination to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. I have spoken and written numerous times about the important functions that the Office for Civil Rights serves for our nation’s students. You know these functions well as you have previously served in this role in the administration of President George W. Bush. However, I am deeply concerned by issues raised as part of your confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. When asked during your confirmation hearing by Senator Warren whether if, as Assistant Secretary, you would intervene in an instance where Black students in a school district were receiving lower quality teachers, fewer books, fewer AP classes, and fewer educational resources than white students, you could not affirmatively state that you would step in and ensure that students have equal resources, stating rather that “any complaints alleging violation of Title VI would be—reviewed.” According to a recently released report by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, an organization in which you were a Staff Director, “decades of social science research reflects that schools that remain segregated by income and race tend to remain extremely unequal in the educational opportunities that they afford students of different racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.” In our nation, the quality of your education greatly impacts your chances in life. When students of color are far less likely to receive the school resources needed to succeed, they deserve to have their rights protected, not merely have these clearly established disparities “reviewed.” Further, I was deeply concemed by your refusal to affirmatively state how or whether you would address disparities in school discipline policies that are well-known to be discriminatory. Rather, you dismissed these discipline disparities as mere paperwork errors. Based on data from the Civil Rights Data Collection, Black students are suspended at a rate of 3.8 times that of white students and Black preschool children are 3.6 times more likely to receive out of school suspensions than their white peers. These statistics are not a “paperwork error.” ‘They are the result of systematic issues within our school system, which you will be charged with addressing if confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rightsyou disagree with or has moved our country in the wrong direction, you could not point to a single example. This flies in the face of reality; in addition to proposing steep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights, President Trump has rescinded guidance that protects transgender students and outlines how schools must handle sexual assault. These policies are both misguided and harmful to our nation's students. The fact that you see nothing wrong with these policies is deeply troubling, As Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights you would be charged with protecting our nation’s most vulnerable students. Ifin fact you do not see any harm in what the Trump Administration has done to the protections upon which so many marginalized people rely, then it calls into question your ability to lead an office tasked with enforcing equality in a time in which civil rights are facing serious threats. In order to help me better understand your commitment to civil rights and equal justice, please answer the following questions by February 28. © Do you believe that all students regardless of race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and national origin are entitled to a fair and equal education? * Can you commit to examining and addressing systemic racial issues in regards to school discipline policies especially with regards to pre-kindergarten expulsions? © Can you commit to ensuring that survivors of campus sexual assault are protected when they come forward and that systemic issues with regard to how institutions address sexual assault greatly weigh the needs of the survivor? * _Insituations where students are receiving less resources because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability or national origin, can you commit to protecting their civil rights and ensuring their access to a fair and equal education? Thank you in advance for your prompt consideration and response. Sincerely, . Cory A. Booker United States Senator