John King, senior advisor delegated duties of deputy secretary of education, will participate in a policy session titled “From Education to Opportunity: Pathways That Work” at 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, as part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. The session is part of the My Brother’s Keeper Town Hall events being presented during the conference.
Prior to King’s panel, at 9 a.m. ET, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon will introduce a panel on “Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline for African Americans and Minorities.” Her remarks will focus on highlighting racial disparities in school disciplinary practices using the Civil Rights Data Collection. She will also highlight specific efforts by the Office for Civil Rights to address these disparities. Khalilah Harris, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans (Initiative), will serve as a panelist during the discussion, which will highlight programs and policies ending the school-to-prison pipeline and address barriers that block opportunities for students who have been in contact with the criminal or juvenile justice system.
At 10 a.m. ET, Ivory Toldson, acting executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), will participate in a panel discussion on passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and at 1:30 p.m. ET, he will deliver remarks at the HBCU College and Career Fair.
At 11 a.m. ET, David Johns, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, will moderate a panel titled "Overcoming the Odds: STEM Education and College Completion for African Americans." This panel will identify challenges and solutions for reversing the disproportionate effect of attrition rates for African Americans pursuing STEM education and college completion, while also recommending policies, programs, and initiatives that enable African Americans to achieve academic and professional success in STEM fields.
At 3 p.m. ET, Harris will participate in a panel titled “Fixing the Crisis in African American Economic Security: Attaining Opportunity and Prosperity for all African Americans.” This panel will examine the nature of the economic challenges facing the African American community as well as efforts that are underway to address them.