Transcripts For CSPAN House Hearing On COVID-19 Budget Cuts Public Education 20240712

Bemembers and witnesses will responsible for on muting themselves when they are recognized to speak or when they seek recognition. Tesch pursuant to host regulation 95, members are required to leave their cameras on the entire time they are in an official proceeding, even if they step away from the camera. Remote an entirely hearing, as a result the hearing room is closed. Withs who choose to sit their individual devices in the hearing room must use headphones to avoid feedback or distortion resulting for more than one person on the floor speaking. They are expected to adhere to social distancing and health care guidelines, including the ,se of masks, gowns gloves and wiping down areas. Not ollcall is whenever there is an official proceeding with low participation, a clerk will call the roll to make clear who is present at the start of the proceeding. At this time, i ask the clerk to call the roll. Chairman . Present. Misses david . Present. Mr. . Mr. Courtney . Present. Miss fudge . Present. Mr. Sublime . Present. Miss wilson . Amici . R mr. Kirk, . Present. Miss adams . Present. Mr. . [indiscernible] mr. Herder . Present. Misses mcbath . Present. Mistrial miss trier . Present. Miss underwood . Present. Mr. Layla . Present. Mr. 11 . Here. [indiscernible] trona . Miss stevens . Hello, i am here. Misses lee . Present. Misses strahan . Present. Mr. Castro . Ms. Is fox . Present. Mr. Ro . Mr. Thompson . Present. Mr. Wahlberg . Mr. Wahlberg is having difficulties with his sound, but he is present in the room. Mr. Guthrie . Present. Mr. . [indiscernible] mr. Grossman . Miss stephan nick . Present. Mr. Allen . Mr. Fulcher . Mr. Watkins . Wright . Here. Present. Mr. Johnson . Johnson is present. Mr. Keller . Here. Mr. Murphy . Present. Mr. Andrews . [indiscernible] if people would remute. Weve a lot of background noise. Pursuant to Committee Rule 70, it allows us to hear from our witnesses and provide all members with adequate time to ask questions. I now recognize myself on opening statements. Before i deliver opening remarks, let me first acknowledge the recent protest against Police Misconduct and in favor of racial justice. Times are demanding we address this countrys centuriesold challenges. We candays hearing, begin to answer the calls to rakel at rachel equity. I will note this marks the committees first remote hearing pursuant to House Resolution 965. We are going to examine how the covid19 fed pandemic has effected state and local revenue. Shortfalls nationwide School Closures to two covid19 have had a profound effect on all students, especially in what has been called the summer slide. This year, it started a few months earlier than usual. Our countrys history of educational and equity tells us which students will lose the most. Andpandemic is exposing worsening achievement gaps pursuant to colored students, students with disabilities by englishlanguage learners, and students from low income backgrounds. Though students are less likely to attend school and have resources to establish high quality Distance Learning. They are also unlikely to have the basic technology such as a personal computer and internet access. Data suggests only 16 of low income students are regularly logging in to instruction compared to 90 of high income students. Serve the ash learn thertant to states and School Districts with already crumbling infrastructure man and a teacher shortage, 70 7000 fewer School Workers at about 2 million more publicschool students compared to prerecession levels the setbacks have not been distributed equally. Localntinued reliance on property tax to finance Public Education has ensured Public Schools with the highest need are forced to do with less. Achievement gaps exacerbated by covid19 have widened further. This morning, the center on but willdget revealed states see a 16 billion revenue shortfall. States are required to balance their budgets every year. Is usually occasion one of the largest expenditures. Thet 40 of many state by many state budgets, on average. It will be on matter of not when cunning wolf not when funding will be cut, but howdy. How deep. Districts that are disproportionately impacted by covid19 will suffer severe cuts in education and other areas at a time they can least afford it. We have started to see the consequences. Delay 75 9000 publicSchool Employees have lost their jobs since march peardon colorado, the Legislature Passed a budget that cuts 1 billion for schools next year. We ended our regular General Assembly session just as the pandemic was starting, and reconvened a few weeks later for the normal veto session where we consider the governors vetoes and amendments. Revenues have been reforecasted and we learned a new word, unallocated. That is one happen to the 2 teacher raise. Thats what happened to money going into low income School Districts because of the revised revenue estimates, those expenditures were unallocated. Get assistance from thosederal government, expenditures will just totally evaporate. Regrettably, the department of 31ation has received billion to help fund the Emergency Education funding. Regrettably, the department has mishandled those funds and prevented states and School Districts from quickly assessing those funds for the department issued equitable Servants Service guidance that [indiscernible] the department announced its intention to use the vast majority of the 300 million in discretionary funds it received from the cares act which was intended to support Public Schools in their effort to respond to the virus, and fund a Grant Program that is virtually indistinguishable from private school vouchers. Even if the department had used accordance with the law, it would be insufficient. Researchers predict reopening schools could cost the average School District 2 million. The American Federation of teachers projects that schools nationwide will need as much as 100 16 billion to safely reopen campuses. Thent history foreshadows consequences of our educational system will face if we fail to act. Inresponse to the recession 2008, congress provided roughly 10 million. Three times what we have seen to the pandemic so far. Was that funding insufficient and did not focus enough on School Districts with the highest need. Schools across the country experienced massive budget cuts. 300,000 employees lost their jobs. Unsurprisingly, the poorest communities bore the brunt of these cuts. Our pastsons from makes clear that School Districts urgently need more relief. Act,ouse passed the heroes the legislative relief package that provides roughly 1 trillion to help states address budget shortfalls. Additionally, 60 billion in direct k12 emergency funding that schools can use to cover the cost of cleaning supplies and other expenses. Educational Technology Like , sustain special education for students with disabilities, provide training and support School Counselors who are helping the students tackle the trauma of this pandemic. And perilousotal moment in our fight for equity education. Has already translated into a major setback, but with all of us wanting to reopen schools as quickly as possible, we cannot put the safety of students and communities at risk by opening schools without the resources they need. If we fail to give the local governments these resources, the impact of this unprecedented challenge will be felt long after it is over. I want to thank our witnesses. Dr. Fox. O dr. Birx thank you. I want to thank our witnesses also for being here today. Recognizeparticularly teachersr teacher and schools for their herculean work this spring. Some cases doing so almost overnight. Educators at all levels should be celebrated for their education dedication and responding to coronavirus and go far beyond their normal responsibilities to respond to the needs of their communities. Just as teachers are working to overcome the challenges the pandemic poses, this nation possible elected officials will step up and do the job they were elected to do. D. C. ,eans working from and being physically present. Republicans are participating in todays hearing in person from our hearing room. Republican invited witnesses are also with us. Be at workshould here in washington and irish my colleagues to make it a priority moving forward. The pandemic has adversely impacted private and Public Schools alike. An estimated 94 of schools sed, impacting prop approximately 97 of students. Thoseudents including that Charter Schools and private schools should have access to the tools they need for lifelong success. Enacted thecongress cares act which provides more than 30 billion dollars in Emergency Education spending for students, schools, institutions and states. Been no evaluation about 30 billion in the hardworking taxpayer money. Democratse are, pushing those same taxpayers to dole out more money at a time when more americans are being forced to tighten their belts. The ever evolving threat covid19 poses, it would be a responsible to throw additional funds that the problem we dont understand fully. Not yete schools have spent the funds they received. Facts, democrats are demanding we spend more money. Money is not a cureall solution it is your responsible ponsible to blindly throw money at the situation. Per person, spending has increased significantly yet High School Seniors are not performing better than they were 30 years ago. Must first evaluate the impact of the billions of dollars in aid already provided through the cares act. To further burden taxpayers with additional spending. Additional funds at this time is premature and illogical. As we monitor the issue students and schools face, it is within this committees jurisdiction to explore opportunities for a long lasting reform that will improve the system for all families. Families experiencing this inadequacystrate the of the status quo for providing all students the foundation they need for lifelong success. I am looking forward to testimony about what School Districts are learning from the work done this spring, how they are identifying weaknesses in the educational offerings, and how they are seeking to address those weaknesses. We will talk about the need for more personalized learning so that Student Needs can be identified quickly and instruction can be tailored to ensure each student is back on track when school resumes. Others aboutr from how they are using current challenges to question long held assumptions. We omit to students to legislate with meaningful reform. I yield back. Thank you. Wish tohe members who introduce witness statements into the records may do so by submitting them to the clerk electronically in microsoft word monday, june 29 at 5 00 p. M. Leachman from the center of Budget Priorities directs the center of state policy research overseeing analysis of state policy needs and state policy choices to improve equity. As Vice President of the National Education association. Missed served as a middle school teacher. She received her bachelors of from the university of pittsburgh, masters in education from Pennsylvania State university. I yield to the Ranking Member to introduce mr. Johnson. Thank you mr. Chairman. I am thrilled to have my home state superintended with us. I have known for several years that he has done an incredible job. [indiscernible] been involved in education in a variety of roles including a teacher at west Charlotte High school, and a member of the winstonsalem Forsyth County school board. I think him for being here today. Experienceks leading our state through these challenges will be helpful for our members. I yield back. You. Ank fourth witness, eric gordon, chief executive office of the cleveland metropolitan School District after serving as the districts chief academic officer for four years. Member of the executive committee for the board of directors on the council of great city schools. He earned a bachelors degree in science in secondary mathematics degreeon and a masters in Education Administration and supervision from Bowling Green state university. Forpreciate the witnesses participating today. Let me remind witnesses we read your written statements and they will appear in full on the record. Rules, to committee your presentation to a five minute summary of your written testimony. Code, it isthe illegal to falsify any statement, representation, or otherwise conceal representation of facts. Staff will keep track of your time and use a chime to signal a short time when there is one minute left, and a longer chime when time is up. Please be attended to time and wrap up when your time is over. Experiencing technical difficulties during your testimony, stay connected on the platform, make sure you are mute but muted and use your phone to call the committees i. T. Director whose number has been provided for you. All of our witnesses make their presentations before we moved to questions. When answering a question, remember to unmute your system. We first recognize dr. Leachman. Scott, Ranking Member fox, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am michael leachman, state physical spot nonpartisan Research Policy institute. The pandemic has created an extraordinary fiscal crisis. On sales and income tax for 70 of tax revenue. With so many businesses closed, these revenues have fallen off the table. History and economic productions from the Congressional Budget Office of the federal reserve, we protect we projected shortfalls of 16 billion. It is hard to exaggerate the magnitude of this. The shortfall states will face in the upcoming year loan far exceed even the worst year of the Great Recession decade ago. Provided, while helpful, is too small to allow states to avoid laying off teachers and other workers complained taking other steps that would worsen the recession. Close can use this aid to roughly 100 billion of their budget gaps. Even with that aid and a Rainy Day Funds, they would still fall 400 billion short. These estimates do not include states added costs due directly to covid19. School districts face substantial unanticipated costs which include Distance Learning and expanded learning time. Our shortfall estimates are for states only. As you know, schools depend heavily on revenue raised by School Districts and other government entities. Their revenues are falling too. And schooles districts receive more federal aid, they will lay off more teachers and other workers, and cut spending in other ways that would further weaken the economy and deliver recovery. When states last faced a budget crisis a decade ago, emergency federal aid closed about one quarter of budget shortfalls and School Districts have never recovered from the layoffs they impose. This year,19 hit schools employed 77,000 fewer teachers and other workers than they did before the Great Recession took hold, even though they were teaching 1. 5 million more children. And layoffsg cuts hurt kids, and that hurts arbor future. They drove down tests scores and college attendance. It was particularly damaging for theents of color, adding to substantial structural barriers these children must overcome. 13ralaid includes just billion in direct aid for k12 schools, far too little to meet the extreme challenges. Endure inillion additional aid in the heroes act is a significant step in the right direction. On its own, it is not enough. States could use other forms of aid to protect schools, but it is not certain they will. Would support a significant increase in direct aid for schools in the final package. Need other forms of Fiscal Relief to avoid harmful layoffs, other cuts and tax increases. Rate is a particularly effective form. It can be done quickly and by providing direct savings to states, raising the matching rate freeze up funds they can up funds theyes can reallocate. [indiscernible] flexible grants to states and localities. States and localities should have the flexibility to use these grants to make up for revenues lost. Primaryenue losses the threat to school funding. To isthe best way through permanent automatic stabilizers that trigger on based on Economic Indicators that adjust based on the state of the economy. Ending sooner if the economy recovers quickly, but staying in place as long as needed. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I would be happy to take questions from the when that is time. Thank you. Ms. Pringle. You have to unmute. [chime] thank you. Pringle and iky Science Teacher from pennsylvania and Vice President of the National Education association. I am honored to represent more than 3 million teachers, educational professionals and believezed staff who that no matter where they live or Family Income should have an education that prepares them to live into their brilliance. That is our fight and it is a privilege to lead it. The pandemic has deepened the disparities that already existed. Prompted budget cuts that will devastate students, especially in black and brown, native and whirlpool communities. Whomillions of students lack access to connected devices were faced with this Digital Divide that denied them the opportunity to access remote instructions so they can continue learning at home. I met with educators, they talked to me about starting the school year knowing they not only had to determine where students were academically, but were worried about meeting of notional needs from their students who they knew were suffering from anxiety from uncertainty and loss. Is the crisis we face with policing of brock black and brown, it is. We are not the only ones who witnessed the murder of george floyd. However children were watching. Some have experience themselves or seeing their loved ones subjected to racial profiling, humiliating and unlawful detention. Proud to seere their students demanding justice for black lives. Everything our students are seeing requires that educators are able to use informed practices and be engaged with their students. We need enough teachers, counselors and others to nurture every student. Districtm line is that s must spend more, not less. Especially if we are to reopen by providingy protective equipment for students and staff and retrofitting classrooms and other spaces for social distancing. This path is more difficult because School Buildings are on average 40yearold. The rebuild americas schools act began to tackle longstanding infrastructure needs, but more must be done. These investments will be a major challenge especially in districts that never recovered from 2008. Cutbacks from that recession caused 300,000 educators to lose their jobs. Than 500,000 Public Education jobs have been lost because of the pandemic. Nea, 2 million educators could lose their jobs over the next three years. This would be devastating for students and schools that already are under resource. These students need to return to Public School with the resources to help them recover and thrive. Nea has been listening to our alies and recently released reopening guidance called all hands on dac. Is in thening schools best interest of our nation. Rescissions those decisions require input from teachers who know the names of their students. Reopened the funding to schools in the right way. The is why the nea supports heroes act, it includes 900 billion in direct relief for state and local governments and 900 billion dollars in additional revenue for education. The bold action of the past and call on Mitch Mcconnell and the senate to demonstrate they care about education of all students. Planning forlready the upcoming year and they need funding now. My 30 years of experience makes me believe we can learn from this moment. We can finally provide resources and support to everyone about our students. Nea members are an optimistic bunch. It is our job requirement. Thenow we can address challenges not only of covid19, but we must address the equity challenges that have plagued our schools forever. We stand ready. [chime] to bring about the new day. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Johnson. Good afternoon chairman scott and members of the committee. I am superintendent mark johnson. It is my privilege to serve students, educators and citizens of North Carolina. Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this hearing today and thank you all for your swift effort to enact the cares act to use federal dollars to support our communities and schools during this unprecedented prayer endemic. Unprecedented pandemic. The virus has threatened our health, economy, education and way of life. Educators, parents and caretakers across the nation have made difficult sacrifices. Has shown we have the resilience to overcome it. That childre Nutrition Services continue which means keeping Meal Services available. Schools kept cafeterias open, and delivered meals using school buses and the mail. In North Carolina, we have served 30 million million 30 million meals. States also switched to distancelearning overnight. Leader inlina is a Digital Education, but as fortunate as we are, no one was ready for the switch to 100 Remote Learning over one weekend. Assignments were delivered by school bus, over the phone, and even through the postal service. Switch fromable to being reactive to proactive. The challenges we will face next school year will put on display the resilience of students, parents and educators. Only ond be focused not coming back strong, but stronger. Thank you for helping the students of North Carolina with federal funds. We will use these to protect the health and safety of students and educators and will use them to help innovate and spread strategies and tools that will help every child work hard and reach their dream. Investing in technology, strong digital curriculum options and professional development. Before this unparalleled moment, North Carolina was making a shift in education to empower teachers with tools that support personalized learning. Now, this innovation is more important than ever. We are going to see a loss of learning. When students return in the fall, we will need to help all students catch up. We dont have to do that with onesizefitsall strategies. The options we are purchasing help teachers more easily students. Working hard been for decades to individualize education and this is not the technology we are pushing for North Carolina will be a another tool for teachers to help students. Useyoungest students can technology to catch up on reading skills they need to be successful and our older students can use this technology to discover the pathways to success that they decide work best for them. Valued that is a high credential, military service, or degree from community college. The challenges facing us next school year are enormous but we must also use this moment to reach every single student with resources and strategies that help them work hard in school and succeed. In North Carolina, we have a toast. We say that our state is where the weak grow strong and the stronger great. Nations enduring end rising above unprecedented challenges. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Gordon. That afternoon. Ranking member fox and members of the labor committee. My name is eric gordon, chief executive officer of the cleveland metropolitan School District. Ofm proud to service cochair the ohio urban coalition and chair of the council of the great city schools. Metropolitan School District is the secondlargest in ohio with an an enrollment of 38,000. With over percent of our children living below the poverty line, cleveland has the highest Child Poverty rate of any city in the country with a Median Household Income of just over 26,000. Residents often lacks basic necessities. Our School Community is 86 children of color. Over 17 are english language learners and over a quarter are identified with special education. Over 1900 students are homeless on any given day. Despite these and other msds gone from being the worst performing School Districts to one of ohios fastest growing. Governor mike dewine ordered the necessary closing of ohio schools due to covid19. Significant impact on students across ohio. While my peers in more affluent districts switched to online instruction, the reality is 40 of our families had no reliable access to highspeed internet. 68 of our families had no device other than a smartphone phone to even access that internet. Offered 22 grab and go sites and homework help lines, delivered content that can be delivered by cell phone. Gradeeekly level level learning packages as well as supplemental packages for students with learning disabilities and to support Emotional Health which we mailed to each home. We created lessons on local tv stations and established Health Hotlines for those experiencing high stress, feelings of isolation or signs of neglect. Over the period, we froze spending to direct all available funds toward the purchase and distribution with a oneyear subscription to the internet and devices. Those devices and hotspots which will remain distributed throughout the summer ensure that families are now able to apply for unemployment, jobs, Access Medical care and access other essential support afforded to most americans. Facedequities my families during this emergency has existed in communities across the country for decades. It is important to note these inequities are most acute in communities of color. Addressing these needs and preparing to return the school to address nine weeks of lost learning and create a more fair, just and good system of personalized mastery learning must also be done within the context of the looming project crisis. In my district, we are facing the threat of losing up to 127 million in state and local revenue. Net is nearly 25 of the operating budget. If this worstcase scenario were to occur, i would have no choice but to make deep devastating cuts this winter and implement them for second semester, essentially wiping out years of growth we have generated in cleveland. We have alreadys received we have already received a 500 million budget cut. Irish congress to pass the necessary resources to keep our schools intact during the economic crisis. While this includes resources contemplated in the heroes act we mustre act, include Additional Resources in the years ahead to ensure Adequate Funding for americas most vulnerable, including title , title iii for immigrant children, ida part b for students with learning disabilities and the act for your students and foster as superintendents like i work to make up for lost time. Chairman scott and members of the committee, on behalf of the 38,000 students of the cleveland metropolitan School District two i have the privilege of serving along with the 192,000 troops children of the coalition, thank you for letting me be with you today. Thank you. Thank you. Forink all of the witnesses our testimony. We will begin with questions. I will go last. Lets start with the young lady from california. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you to our witnesses. You all feel so strongly about what we are about to face. Going to be as great a crisis as our schools have experienced. We all may be need to take our own test now and then. Onder if you could respond is it possible for us to open cannot avoid personnel cuts . If we cannot avoid layoffs . Is it possible for us to open schools if we cannot compensate for learning loss . Particularly in reading and math. Is it possible for us to open schools if we cannot keep students safe . Struggling with answering those questions, we really have a difficult decision to make with, as you have cost wed, the increased are going to be seeing weighing somewhere at 20 . At least they do for san diego. Trueuestion is, if that is , and we are not able to reach a level where we are comfortable with any of those major issues, what should we do . Where is it that we are going to anable to at least reach appropriate level of service if we cant do that . Gordon you were just speaking where do you go from there . Yount you to address, as have done, the learning loss particularly for our most vulnerable. If we cant provide the basics for each and every student in our school, how are we going to be able to do that . Does that mean having more students coming into school in those areas for longer . What do you think about cleveland . Thank you. Thank you for the question. As i provided in my written testimony, i think this is both a crisis to face but an opportunity and education to reinvent our systems of delivery of learning. I am ane mr. Johnson, advocate in moving to a very much personalized learning driven by mastery of content and not simply time. In ohio, we are not likely going to be able to bring all children back at the same time because of the strict Public Health guidance we have seen so far. That means we are going to have multiple scenarios of who we can bring back and for how much time. Districts are talking about b days,ike a days and monday tuesday class. Tom challenging my team think more nimbly and ask ourselves the question who are those children that need the most direct time with teachers . Disabilities, english learners, the fostered, and who can be more self sufficient in an high active highquality learning environment that can be partially remote. That does require keeping personnel intact. See a to send quarter of my budget cut, that will result in huge layoffs like we saw in 2010 where we closed 23 School Buildings and laid off 700 teachers in a single moment. Open . Will be we have to, but will it be highquality . That will be dependent on whether we can keep educators. I believe my time is up. Thank you. . . Dr. Fox . I will ask my questions now. Ranking lady is recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Superintendent johnson, you spoke about some ways cares act of was being spent and do expect that money to be spent. What is the status of the cares act money in North Carolina . The cares act funding in North Carolina came through multiple sources. Of thelion in the hands governor, there has been no decision on how that will support education. That will receive about 400 million, the state board of education has decided to hold back the maximum amount to address equity issues. That has not been determined what exactly that money will be used for. Had beenmillion that , the application process is done but districts have not started drawing down on that money yet. That wenthe large sum to the North Carolina general dedicatedthey have 230 million of those funds to address some of learning loss, help with connectivity and device purchases. Again, we have not spent that money yet. That was also on top of 50 million from state funds repurposed for School Districts to address the reactive measures of the crisis. We have not yet spent to those yet. We are in a proactive phase right now. Thank you superintendent. Superintendent johnson, i can imagine anyone would refuse funding from taxpayers. Overwhelming is now a great time to spend billions more dollars in taxpayer funds . What steps are needed to take before those decisions are made and what factors should congress consider before determining if another round is needed . Thank you. A citizen and educator that it is important for congress to balance the fact that there is a lot of debt being taken out, but a lot of needs out there across the nation. Congress tourage work with the state chief officers. In North Carolina, we are still waiting on what the plan will be for reentering School Spirit or governor has set out attentional plans but we have not made a firm decision. Going in there not right direction in North Carolina. Also, we dont have a budget yet. While we are concerned about budget cuts, we do not know exactly what those details will be. As mentioned, we are being very proactive. We are fortunate we are not being reactive. Congress tourage see where that money is spent in North Carolina, as i discussed, focused on the health and safety of students, but also using this opportunity to transform how we meet every student at their ability level and help them proceed at their own pace. One more question superintendent johnson, there has been concern from some about the interpretation of the cares act. The Equitable Services provision. Without getting into the weeds, do you believe each Education Sector your, traditional schools, charter and private schools deserve equitable support . The short answer would be yes. This is an unprecedented crisis affecting everyone. Withess took those steps stimulus checks. People who lost their jobs and needed help paying bills got a stimulus check but also we had people who retired and didnt get a check as well. Important that if Congress Wants to help every citizen, thats what they do. Not to get into the weeds, but it is congress job to be in charge of the purse strings. Legislativeour branch to be clear on their to and where they want be clear on their intent for where they want the money to go. I want to end with a comment, not a direct question, but if you agree with me i would appreciate it. I am a student of the constitution, i have read it many times. I have failed to find the word education in there. Can you tell me where you have found that as a reason a responsibility of the federal government . Educators all over the nation appreciate any funding that comes from the government, but we also appreciate not putting a lot of strings attached. Appreciate the funding that comes. It is in theeve constitution of the United States but we appreciate the support. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. . Thank you mr. Chairman. Questions i think we are in a situation that is unprecedented in the threat to the future of Public Education is real. It is upon us. It is not a question of throwing money at a problem. It is not a question of longheld assumptions being the rule of the day. I think it is important that as we look forward to talking about the heroes act, the support that is needed at a state level but in particular with our Public Schools, we recognize there is a legacy a systemic legacy of preexisting conditions in Public Education. Aroundonditions revolve income,e of inequity, and the manifestations of those have been pandemic has exposed that even more so. I think the role of the government is twofold, to respond to the pandemic and to supplement both the Public School system and Public Education in our country so that the inequities we know where their that are being agreed to as we talk, dont become the permanent legacy of this pandemic, both the inequities becoming permanent and the efforts to try to do something about them. Thats a priority. It should be a priority for this committee. Thingsthe [indiscernible] all state street things differently and not all states are the proponent of Public Education in terms of the administration or whoever happens to be the governor. Fact that given the dashcam the states afford, regardless, for the federal government to take a wait and see approach to state and local Fiscal Relief. And the urgency for that federal relief, why is it a priority . Try to give your comments on that question. Thank you, congressman. I think this is very urgent that congress act. States already are starting to cut their education budgets. Alreadyia, they have the governor and legislative leadership have caused for some substantial cuts across the board for the upcoming fiscal year which starts july 1. Thats in just a couple of weeks. In ohio, the governor has asked for agencies to submit 20 cut budgets and has already implemented cuts for the current fiscal year. States and localities have already furloughed or laid off about 1. 5 million workers. Beginning fiscal year very soon, states are going to be making decisions that will result in teachers and other education workers being laid off. Wrong time. The its never a good time but when the economy is especially weak, the last signal we want is more layoffs. In addition to the impact on schools and kids, there is a full effect on the economy at an important time. Arizona is one of the top states if not the top state in the uptick in mortality , infection and spread of the pandemic. This, thedle of governor says the school will be open in a month or less. To protect kids and staff, as you mentioned, thats not needded in the overall that schools will have in order be held harmless for this for the coming school year, financially speaking. In the any response to that . Thats an excellent point. Thatevenue loss here states are experiencing is unprecedented. Its an extraordinary fiscal that, and then on top of we have schools having to deal with substantial new costs to try to open safely. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. The gentleman from tennessee, dr. Roe. The gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Thompson. Thank you so much, chairman and republican leader fox. I really appreciate this. Trulys a Movement Toward getting back to work and performing her duties and responsibilities. The needs of the nation did not stop and they dont stop because of any pandemic or crisis or emergency. It probably intensifies the need for our work. Thanks to the members of the panel, superintendent johnson, i want to thank you for making time to join us at the hearing. The spread of covid19 has caused significant disruptions to educators and students across the country. Andstimated 124,000 Public Private schools closed this spring including more than 3000 schools in my home state in pennsylvania. Due to the pandemic, Congress Responded swiftly and acted and enacted the cares act which delivered more than 13 billion in formal funding directly to states and School Districts i went down. Im still there. Thank you. To help students respond to the coronavirus related needs. Congressionale 15 district in pennsylvania which covers 14 counties and 24 of the landmass in pennsylvania. The number one issue i heard from my School Districts, very rural district in nature is a lack of broadband and technology access. These School Districts have been creative in how they address these connectivity issues like setting up driveby wifi hotspots near School Parking lots and local libraries. The need for improved Broadband Service to these areas is absolutely long overdue. According to the census data, roughly 15 of the u. S. Households with School Age Children do not have highspeed Internet Connection at home, either dont have it at all or they dont have sufficient broadband to support the Online Learning platforms. That number is much higher in my district as i work with all of my School Districts throughout this time. Its totally unacceptable. Mr. Johnson, you touched briefly , is North Carolina experiencing similar issues with issues of broadband activity and if so, how are you addressing the problem . Thank you, representative. I believe every state is facing the same issue right now including North Carolina. We are actually the first state in the nation to connect every single classroom to highspeed wireless internet which is a trulyntal task and a amazing accomplishment for education. That does not help when students in rural North Carolina or students in urban North Carolina dont have that broadband connection. We have immediately addressed this by making sure that we put money into hotspot devices and innovation that will help get wireless internet to students in rural communities. Buses, have used school the phone, mail but this is absolutely something we would appreciate congress very much helping with and looking at how do we make sure we innovate and get that Broadband Access to every student . We hope to be back in school in North Carolina but there is the chance we will be back in Remote Learning like other states. Enter a, i would just quick question. Is the usda and what they have done with providing flexibility and waivers to our National School lunch program. I participated personally in that with the distribution of meals. The teamwork on the collaboration between the committee and the schools. My final question for you is i talked with my School Districts as early as late as this morning on a county Advisory Committee meeting so i routinely have to ask a school board member. Are lookingschools at the transportation cost. If there is implications for social distancing, especially in rural areas that have a tremendous amount of transportation, North Carolina, its a lot like pennsylvania geographically. Any quick thoughts of what you anticipate in terms of transportation challenges in the fall . A it will absolutely be challenge of social distancing is required in our schools. Our governor has set out three different plans. We hope to be under the plan that allows us to get as many students back as safely as possible but if we are required to 50 capacity on school buses and social distancing on school buses, we will be in the same situation. It will be very difficult. We will probably look for more waivers and more help when it comes to getting more buses on the road to run more routes or, as has been mentioned, the difficult reality of switching b days and have students stay at home one day while other students go to school and they switch. That would be a huge challenge for our community as well. Thank you, chairman. You, the gentleman from connecticut. Thank you, mr. Chairman and to the witnesses for appearing today which is extreme the urgent. You actually speaking to from norwich, connecticut where the district offices, a community of about 42,000 people. The board of education just voted to eliminate 45 positions in the k12 system which is a huge hit in terms of the size of the workforce in a relatively small committee. Superintendent, when they were talking about this, she says this is about revenue and the lack thereof which is precisely the problem. The coronavirus recession has created. Connecticut has already distributed the titles when cares act funding and norwich is a title i area. It was not enough to stop these layoffs. Awayringle, we are weeks from the schools reopening. I know there is a lot of work being done about planning for them. Choosing staff, isnt it the exact opposite of where we should be headed if we are trying to reduce class size and accommodate social distancing which is cdc in the Public Health officials are advising . Is that correct . Is she still with us . I know to unmute but thank you so much, congressman courtney for that question. I got a chance to talk with quite a few of your educators there in connecticut last week. You are absolutely correct. Without the additional funding, we know that other School Districts like the one you just talked about will absolutely have to lay off hundreds and hundreds of educators. Teachers, our support staff who nurture our students, bus drivers, we just heard we will need more of those. We know that we cannot open our schools safely without these additional funds. Are sending our students back to school and we are all saying we want them to go back safely but we are cutting, already have cut over 500 thousand education jobs. Coming because we know that our states will be suffering and we have already been down this road before. In 2008, what got cut first . Education. Education jobs, services for our students, our students with special needs in particular need that additional assistance. For us to think that we are going to send our students back to School Safely and provide them with a quality education that we believe they all deserve , we know that cannot happen. So we need the senate to act right now. That somehers say districts have not started spending the money yet. I would ask questions about why that didnt happen. I am glad to hear you talk about yours, saying we are already putting that money to good use. Your educators are planning right now as they should. We always do. When we finish school, we plan for the next year before we even leave. They are already making plans. If we know that we are going to aim to have our students come back to School Safely, we have to change a lot of things. We are having those conversations right now. If we dont know the amount of money we are going to get to open our schools safely, if we dont know the changes we will have to make or how we are going to provide the ppe for our students and their educators, then we cannot do the kind of planning that is absolutely necessary so our students have what they need and what they deserve. Thank you for that answer because the approach we have heard articulated today, it seems to still be in the senate. Obviously, the opening of schools is happening really right now in terms of the planning. Acthman, the heroes provided state assistance and is targeted locally to committees of 50,000 or less. Normally get pushed to the end of the buffet line. Those committed teas in particular, because they have no commercial tax base in most instances, they need to get this direct assistance and as ms. Pringle said, sooner rather than later. Isnt that correct . Absolutely. Incomedepend heavily on and sales taxes so the revenues have fall off the tables but many localities depend on sales taxes as well. They are having the similar kind of effect in that regard. I share your concern for those communities as well. Thank you, mr. Chairman, this mornings Washington Post had an article, Ripple Effect of the downturn. I would like to read it into the record which shows how we are at the beginning of the Ripple Effect thats why we have to get out there. With that, youll back. I yield back. Thank you, the gentleman from which from michigan, mr. Wahlberg. Which fromfrom michigan. The gentle man from kentucky, mr. Guthrie. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you so much. A couple of questions and i think we are hitting the same themes because they are the equivalent of what everybody else, i can think across the aisle on both sides, that we are all concerned about the same things. One is what we call the summer loss. I was in grad school and i attended a talk or a presentation on education by a gentleman who had been president of yale. It struck me that he said one of the correlations of they have is the length of the summer in terms of student performance. Kentucky and across most of the country, we have essentially had students outs and spring break so we have added to that. Johnson, and mr. Gordon as well, the quality of the time you have had since you gone online orchids up and out of school, how are you able to maintain or try to understand the quality of that . Also, we are looking at broadband deployment and getting broadband to the home is an issue. One of my county executive said broadband was getting broadband into his rural county in Hancock County to have access but mr. Gordon said earlier that a city like cleveland probably has ample broadband but its not just getting the pipeline to the home, is getting the device in the home where people can have delivery. Mr. Johnson, if you would go first about your concern about the length of the summer on the quality of school ending. We started online classrooms after schools were shut down. How did you manage the quality of education until now . Access as you go forward even if you dont open in the fall, you will not have broadband there at that exact moment and time. How are you going to manage that moving forward . I would be interested in your perspective, thanks. Thank you, representative. I will be briefed to allow time for my colleague. It was extremely challenging to go to Remote Learning. Amazing ande been stepping up and making sure they were doing everything it they could for their students. My daughter is a first driver to show the is a first grader. We had broadband and the device but even for families that were well connected, this was still a struggle. That does not even start for families that were not connected and didnt have the device, very challenging. Teachers have done an amazing job and what we will be doing is making sure that women come back to school in the fall, whenever that is, we will be doing some formative diagnostic assessments with students to see how much learning they did lose and meet them at their ability levels. When it comes to connecting the broadband, that is a challenge that every state and our nation should take on. Yes, we can put on some bandaids of hotspots and put wireless internet on school buses and driving it to North Carolina. Thats helping but its still very difficult. We would encourage any help that you all have around that. I know that is a concern for many education teachers across the nation. Thank you. Final half a, your semester and how youre managing broadband going into the fall . Thank you. We know because we surveyed our students from grades 312 as well as our educators that the quality was directly related to whether they had highspeed reliable internet in their home. Thoseudents told us that who had routine access were more effective completing their work and were more confident they could complete the work. They were more focused and spend more of the day in learning. They were less bored and they were happier. We know that there is a direct line. Our educators also were able to share that kids who did not have those come a despite all the things we outlined in a written testimony, were not getting the same learning experience. In my written testimony, i have outlined this. Over the next year, we are working to create a nonprofit that exists in cleveland to deliver reliable internet to every family in the district will be the customer for the time they are members so that we can get around hurdles like that , credit or other thing that prevents families from accessing it. We will assess where the students are use this opportunity to be much more personalized and get away from old constraints like the gregorian calendar with grades and where they are learning. I appreciate the response and in being here today. I yield back. Thank you, the young lady from ohio. Oops. The young lady from ohio, miss fudge. The gentleman from the northern mariana islands. Good morning, mr. Chairman and thank you very much for holding this hearing and thanks to our witnesses for their testimony. The Government Accountability office recently released a report on the state of Public Schools. Unfortunately, it confirmed that high poverty School District like mine and across the country face challenges funding new School Buildings were maintaining existing ones. A 2013 report by the army corps of engineers on the 177 million deferred maintenance in the northern marianas and all other areas. Campuses and administration in the whole country will be examined further. I will be leaving there later this month in my capacity as chairman of the subcommittee on Early Childhood, elementary and secondary school education. Mr. Gordon, if i may, even the , how confident do you feel about your states ability to keep up with schools and students in the coming years . Thank you for that question. We are in the midst of a School Reconstruction project in the city that has been going on for the past 20 years because in ohio, we had schools built in the cities and 70s and not maintained because the budget constraints. We get a large portion of the resources from the state of ohio Capital Budget. We now believe the capital dollars will likely need to be diverted to other priorities and that School Construction could be halted for the immediate future. Ive actually found myself in the difficult space of advocating that the Capital Budget be used for differences in rural and urban ohio at the expense of construction and have even signaled to our committed t that we may pause the New Buildings that were expected to Start Construction this fall. Thank you, mr. Gordon. Isnt this an area where federal would help . Yes, sir, the act would be very helpful for this and across the country. I have other questions that i will submit for the record. I have another question, mr. Gordon, who said many children in your district like internet access. Students participated online well others used [indiscernible] can you say what this will have on achievement gaps, students with economic challenges and should and students of color, how will affect them . Poverty,munity is 100 86 chilled of color and over 1 4 of our students are on an iep because there is a lead Health Crisis in cleveland and the lack of resources in charter and voucher schools for students with disabilities. Students who already face gaps brought on by race and class in the city is one it is one of the most segregated cities in the country, will only be magnified by the nine week learning loss. When we compare them to the suburban peers, using our own beta, the effective Online Learning was it was still far more effective as recorded by students and parents and teachers than the kind of tools we were forced to use like mailing packages and those sorts of things. We cannot fully know the gap until the kids are back with us. I can guarantee without seeing the data that it will be magnified. Thank you. We are also using the learning system. The cares act provides 13 billion in federal emergency relief for kids for education. As chairman scott knows, i advocated early on that there to limit ourguage governors issue. 5 governor had put almost million of money could have educationur office of while air committed to college needed 1 million but the to give almostd the entire 5 million to committed to college. They never asked for that money and they were very happy. Let me ask ms. Pringle, looking at where we are, how far with the cares act funding with the learning policy that exists in 300 for students go to helping students in your district . Gordon, go ahead and answer that. Clevelands portion of the cares act direct funding is between 24 and 26 Million Dollars depending whether ohio chooses to follow the block or the guidance from the department and ohio has not yet made the decision. We have24 million, already almost had 15 million in unplanned expenses on a 5. 6 million state budget cut. Essentially 20. 6 million has been spent. Demose been drawing dollars so they are finally arriving in our district. Our governor has not made a decision about the balance but we are advocating for internet and children with disabilities getting the amount. But in my is up district, we have had over 500 teachers furloughed and support staff. Thank you very much. I yield back. Thank you. The gentleman from alabama. Thank you, mr. Chairman and i appreciate the opportunity to bring us together to talk about this important topic. I was worried about this from the getgo because i knew when we abruptly ended school and then tried to put children learning virtually that none of us were prepared for that. Children werent, teachers werent, administrators werent, moms and dads. The thing that bothers me now is that we lurched into this thing. [no audio] [inaudible] [no audio] [no audio] heres the question i have for you. We can have all the great [no audio] the short answer, mr. Representatives know and i think you would find broad agreement from all spectrums of the political aisle that the best place for students to learn is in the classroom with a great, caring teacher. There is no replacement for it and i think that has been magnified through this crisis. I complement the steps that North Carolina has taken to be a leader in Digital Education but even North Carolina is very glaring that we are not where we thatd to be to switch from kind of learning. There is no replacement for students being in the classroom. I dont just say that as the state superintendent, i say that as the father of a little girl who just finished her first grade year through Remote Learning. We know that she will have learning loss herself because as hard as her teachers tried, you cannot just get through as much as when they are in the classroom but also it took an emotional toll my daughter. I woke it into the details but its been difficult especially for our younger students. Mr. Chairman, i need to tell you that mr. Byrne is not being shown and that you skipped over mr. Wahlberg, unfortunately. He was speaking but you could not hear him. Indulgence your because mr. Wahlberg needs to step out after mr. Byrtne. We need to get mr. Byrne on the camera and thats why we need to be in this room and ought not to be doing these things remotely. This is very troubling so i would ask you to please see what you canb do about getting mr. Yrne on. On myave mr. Byrne computer. I see him well. Briefly but i out see him on my computer. Byrne . Anybody else . I cannot see him. Some are seeing him and some are not. He is in the middle of my screen. I am able to see him, mr. Chair. Looking good. Wahlberg. D on mr. And he answered but you could not hear him. We will put him on the list. Crunch and a real mr. Wilson will defer, he can go next. We would appreciate that. Have you completed your questions, byrne . [inaudible] we cant hear him. Mr. Byrne is coming into my microphone. Im not suggesting anything but i had a that experience. He should put his microphone up to his mouth, that works. [no audio] maybe you can use dr. Foxs mike, that would be helpful. The last comment i wanted to make is this if we can make Virtual Education person effectively as in education, we would only need one teacher for every subject and we just last out that great teacher to everybody in america. But we all know thats not enough. We have to get these kids back in school this fall and i know its up to the governors come its not something we get to control but if we think we will be able to substitute with Virtual Education, the quality these kids get when they are actually in school with a teacher, we are kidding ourselves. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman for this. If ms. Wilson is willing to defer to mr. Wahlberg, we would be very grateful. I will recognize ms. Wilson at this point. Ms. Wilson . We cannot hear her. Wahlberg. D, mr. She has deferred to mr. Wahlberg. The gentleman from michigan, mr. Wahlberg, recognized for five minutes. Can you hear me . Can you hear me now . Yes, we can. I know you can hear me in the room. The reason we should have these hearings here is because of this stuff. Its difficult to be passed over because of technology i know was near fault. I appreciate the fact that we have one of our witnesses here today. We appreciate you coming from North Carolina. Another reason why we should be here, we should open up our country again, one of the best things providing Education Funding is having an economy thats going and not shut down so another reason to get the sales tax revenue, the property tax, all of that going and provide the necessary funding for our schools. Thatohnson, the cares act created the Education Stabilization Fund which provided over 30 billion for state schools and irish education to respond to the coronavirus. More specifically, the cares act states that local educational agencies may use the funding for purchasing Educational Technology including hardware, software and other activity. In april, the fcc and the department of education announced a partnership to promote the use of 16 billion for the use of Remote Learning. Mr. Johnson, the challenge that exists in my district is a lack of Broadband Access. As cochair of the 5g caucus, expanding broadband connectivity, its something of interest to me. Three questions i want you to discuss. The first is how has your state utilized cares act resources to promote distancelearning. Secondly, do you have best practices you can share with district looking to better utilize technology in their schools . And the third, are there any additional actions you think congress should consider to further promote conductivity between students and the classroom . Thank you, representative i will start again with urging forress to look at the need Broadband Access across our nation, not just in my state but this is an issue that all states are facing. We have dedicated a lot of our cares act funding with the idea of addressing the conductivity divides. That went large sum to the North Carolina General Assembly. They have provided tens of millions of dollars for devices for students and teachers. They have also provided 70 million of those funds to address Summer Learning loss and i have encouraged the local superintendents if we are in a place where students cannot come back and during the summer to have their learning loss addressed, use that funding to buy High Quality Development for teachers and digital curriculum options for teachers and devices to help address the learning the Summer Learning loss remotely. Finally, we are getting out the money from the cares act that go to the local districts and the schools there. That money is about 400 million in North Carolina. We have just finished the application process for the districts and overwhelmingly, district are telling us they want to use that to buy devices and ensure conductivity for students. Thank you. There has been a lot of discussion today about how the federal government needs to add assistance on top of the money that was allocated in the cares act. While the need may be significant for greater systems, we have to look into that. Are there ways the federal government can assist states and School District in other ways . Are there flexibilities in federal law that would be useful . Yes, thank you. You have heard a lot today about this idea of personalized learning, being able to use these new tools to empower teachers to do with they have been doing for many years, individually individualizing education for students but they would do that in a practical user way by using technology and these good curricular digital curricular options. Getting flexibly from our accountability metric so we have the ability we need to ensure students are learning but it doesnt have to be through highstakes end testing. Lets start looking at a program like an innovative assessment pilot. Lets maybe put that into overdrive and allow formative diagnostics throughout the year to give us the accountability metrics but also help teachers inform their instruction of students. Thank you and i thank representative wilson for helping us with this problem. I yield back. Thank you and ms. Wilson will speak in the time previously reserved for mr. Wahlberg. Ms. Wilson. Stay safe, mr. Wahlberg. Im a strong advocate for Public School and if a district if our districts have enough to worry about, betsy devos and threatens to redirect Critical Resources away from disadvantaged students and schools with a high concentration of children from low income families and towards private schools. In the midst of a pandemic on the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, she is looking to strip emergency funding from Public Schools while ignoring longstanding and thet in congress sad story requirements of the cares act. I have a question for ms. Pringle. Can you speak to your concerns regarding life outcomes for black students and students with disabilities such as educational and emotional and Health Outcomes through a combination of the covid19 pandemic and the possibility of gaping holes in state education budgets for several years . First of all, i want to say thank you for making your comments that you made about secretary devos. Of congress,intent , weifically the guidance know money was designated to go to Public Schools and to try to use it for private schools and voucher schemes is unacceptable. Act,ank you in the cares speaking i am seeking to make sure that is limited in what she is trying to do is limited with the intent of that act, thank you. Absolutely, our students of color and students with special were at aady disadvantage because of the inequitable system that they have found throughout the year, have not provided the resources they need and the support they need to learn. We know this pandemic, like any other crisis, always impacts them first and it impacts them the most. That is why we are coming together, millions of educators around the country are doing everything they can to push the senate, to concur with the actions of the house and provide the additional funding that our schools need. That aretely no students with special needs as well as our black and brown students need that additional assistance, equitable funding in their schools. We already heard they are more likely to go to schools that are crumbling, that are suffering from poor air quality which will predispose them to getting sick. We need those additional that additional funding to improve the conditions in our schools. We need that additional funding to make sure they have access to highquality education. We need that additional funding to make sure that they have those resources and support, especially now. Congresswoman, i cannot thank you enough for raising up the emotional challenges of the kids going back to school. We have the twin pandemic, not only the covid19 but of the institutional racism in this country. Our black and brown students are suffering as they are watching these inequities all over this country show up in both pandemics. We absolutely need to make sure we have counselors and enough teachers to address their emotional needs when they come back to school. Much, thank you ms. Pringle. Leachman. Does that mean my time is up . I yield back. You have one minute left. Leachman, can you explain why its important for state leaders to ensure that high Party Districts are not proportionally affected by the budget cuts and can we explain how School Budgets are set when these decisions are made or why it would benefit states and districts to know what federal support they can rely on . Thank you, congresswoman. An excellent question. Low income children and children of color already face enormous specific stress, cutting funding to their often already under resourced schools would just increase the already significant barriers like laying off teachers and counselors and nurses in a limiting course awkward offerings and putting of maintenance that needs to be done. Because of the barriers placed in front of those children already, the sorts of cuts would be super particularly damaging. , can you remind me of your second question . How can we guide School Districts to know this money is coming so that they can address budget crisis they have give us some information when these decisions are made and why would it benefit states and districts to know what federal support they can rely on as early as possible, considering the timelines they have in setting up budgets. Its important. Thank you. Almost all states to start their fiscal year july 1. They are required to balance their budgets so they need to know soon how much federal aid they will get because they have to write those budgets. They will be making decisions about cutting funding which will result in layoffs and other crucial, very damaging school cuts unless they get substantial federal aid. They need to know if thats coming so they can avoid making those harmful cuts. Thank you so much. I yield back. Thank you, congresswoman. Upthat time was previously reserve for mr. Wahlberg so we will go back in regular order. Ohio, missady from fudge has returned. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Forgive me, i had to take a call, doing the work that everyone thinks we cant do unless we are in washington. I do it all day every day. Welcome to all of our witnesses today. Gordon from the cleveland municipal School District and my friend miss regnal, is nice to see you as well. Mr. Gordon, and your testimony come you talked about schools across the country and how desperately we needed funding. In your written testimony, you say that 40 of families in cleveland have no reliable access. What Additional Resources are needed for Remote Learning to be successful in cleveland . You, my to see congresswoman. Thank you for the question. We estimate that just for cleveland to be connected alone is 40 million to get the infrastructure in place that would connect kids and families that i serve in the district and that estimate was created through our Nonprofit Partnership in the city. Thank you. You also mentioned a personalized system of learning. Can you briefly tell me what that entails . Over the past decade, we have really tried to test and push against the system. We have change calendars to yearround schools and longer days, we have moved learning into museums, fortune 500 companies, hospitals, we have partnered with any number of nonprofit groups like our Early Childhood efforts and mentorships, student organized learning and remote content which can be researched using databases using learning management platforms. Is to makek to do the mastery of the content the goal which all educators wanted to be in the time is one of the resources dictate the amount of learning a child is supposed to have but by using a flexible environment of all the different resources so that students move at the pace they are able. What this would allow us to do is instead of every teacher always having 25 children in a class, some were bored because they could be moving faster could be working more independently and others that could benefit from having a small group studying with her teacher, we can then personalized how we assign kids so kids who are far behind get more personalized attention and kids who are prepared can keep moving. Thank you. Ma mr. Leachn, and your written testimony, you say in excellent case education is vital for children of color. I couldnt agree with you more. That is the reason why chairman scott and i introduced the strength and diversity act. Providesthat act grants to schools to improve diversity. Can you talk through the historical barriers to education for students of color . Congresswoman, thank you for the question in raising this very important issue. Its crucial that we all understand the connections racism andtorical ongoing forms of discrimination and bias. These are the opportunities available for families and the communities where these schools are located and on the kids themselves. Without understanding the history, its difficult to divide policy that would be effective in addressing and creating opportunities and crating the kind of educational system but all of our children need. Doing so would benefit all of us because having all of those kids, helping those kids reach their full potential and overcoming these historical barriers would benefit the economy and make our community stronger. I thank you all for testifying. The point that i heard earlier about education not being a competition, there are many things that and in a competition and with that i will yield back. Thank you. The gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Grossman. Can you hear me now . I can hear you now. Real good, i dont mean to beat a dead horse but i would just request of my good friend knowhairman that i dont if we will be around your thursday and friday. I miss not being able to talk with my democratic colleagues. I like to be bipartisan and i wish so much i could talk to some democrats to my left but i cannot. I will ask you one more time that i wish you would reschedule for next wednesday, thursday or friday when so many of us will be around here. The second thing, as far as mr. Gordon is concerned, he is very critical of schools that are 40 years old or older. District, iith the think all of the schools were was a0 years old and it wellrespected school. Everything in my experience indicates the important thing is to have good teachers and good parents and how old the bricks and mortar are is secondary. But i will ask mr. Gordon who is complaining here i tried to a little bit of research. Compared to the state of ohio as a hold as a whole, how much they spend per student in the cleveland, ohio schools . We spend about 11,000 per pupil. How is that compared to ohio as a whole . I dont know the state average but its widely varied so for example, a neighboring district charges about 22,000 per child so its widely varied in the state of ohio. Im under the impression looking at the internet that youre getting more than the average in the state of ohio. Do you believe that is not true . Thats likely true, yes. Ok, a question for ms. Pringle, one of the things i was thinking about her one of the lessons we learned over the last few weeks from the tragedy of george floyd and again this is for ms. Pringle, that this Horrible Police officer have been removed earlier. I think around the country, unions are looking at the situation and maybe sometimes realizing that theyve done too much to protect the bad police officers. I hear from my School Superintendents that until scott walker change the rules in wisconsin, that was a problem for them as well. Sometimes, the unions were too powerful protecting bad teachers. Of the unions, they are recognizing and may be protected some bad policeman. Do you regret your past stances on maybe protecting too many bad teachers . Unions dont protect bad teachers. Unions are there to ensure that employees rights are followed, to make sure that we have the opportunity as we have are members of the nea Whose Mission is to not only unite our members but the entire nation to fulfill the promise of Public Education. It is our unions were fighting to ensure racial and social and education justice. It is our unions who are fighting to diversify the teaching boards. It is our unions who so that means you will not change your policy . For making sure our students and our schools get the resources they need and they deserve. I guess i got my answer. I will emphasize teachers are and a bad secondgrade teacher is particular harmful to a student who comes from a difficult background. In any event, now we will switch um, mr. Johnson. Beforewered questions about internet in rural areas but i would like to ask how quickly you are able to provide more internet and Broadband Access to people in rural North Carolina and repeat again exactly how far along you are on that process. Thank you, we are able to do that quickly with hotspots and mobile devices on buses. We are closing that gap as quickly as possible. We have done that for actual Fiscal School building physical School Buildings but we are assessing what that gap is using those tools to close that along with our General Assembly. When we talk about access at home, percentagewise, how many kids at home have broadband or access in North Carolina, do you think . Percentagewise, we are looking at about, we are doing this by devices, were looking at a few hundred thousand devices we would have to get out to students so the percentage is we are better along than other states but we are not where we want to be. Where are you today percentagewise and where were you five years ago . I would have to get that specific information to you when i can. We are getting the hotspots out and thats what i would hate to Say Something that is incorrect where we actually are better than we were three month ago based on hotspots weve got. So significant improvement over the last three months . Yes, i can say that and i will get you that progress is the hospital to get out. As the hotspots get out. This is the situation in many states are facing. Thank you very much. If i have a second here i will let it be. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you and i thank the gentleman from wisconsin, particularly for his opening comments about the desire to meet in person. I can assure you that we are in session. Any Committee Proceedings will be in person and not virtual. We will follow through in your suggestion. Next is the gentlelady from oregon. The gentleman from california. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Tofirst question is directed mr. Johnson, the superintendent of schools. Mr. Johnson, and understand youre a strong proponent of Charter Schools and school choice. Believeo know if you that Charter Schools should be known also as Public Schools. Should they be able to claim that moniker . Yes, North Carolina, Charter Schools are Public Schools. They come out of the state public for Public School funding. I would like to highlight a New York Times article from this morning about Charter Schools. Unlike regular and tradition Public Schools, Charter Schools and publics in private schools are eligible for ppe funds through the cares act. Charter schools are also eligible for the Education Stabilization Funds. Schools to of these tap into ppe funds significantly disadvantages traditional Public Schools. Should Charter Schools be allowed to tap into ppe funds while they are also benefiting from stabilization funds . I know that relief funds from the United States congress and the administration should help as broad a spectrum as students as possible. I am not personally aware of Charter Schools in North Carolina applying for the pp fund. That is something that i would need to look into more with my colleagues. That understanding is schools who Charter Schools that have fairly healthy Balance Sheets that are funded by mr. Bloomberg, who donated to your campaign for state superintendent, that these schools are withdrawing ppp funds. If true, what do you think about this. He a you and i would say in North Carolina, Charter Schools are struggling just as much as other Public Schools when it comes to the funding issue because of the way they are funded in North Carolina. They have to find resources for their own buildings, they find resources for their own transportation. Very stronga advocate for Charter Schools but also Charter School accountability. Not doinger school is well, i want to make sure it provides choice for students. And there are excellent examples of Charter Schools in North Carolina. [indiscernible] so my concern is that the administration is refusing to disclose who is receiving ppp but some groups out there have discovered that at least 60 million has gone to Charter Schools from the ppp program. That is why asked you about whether you regard them as Public Schools. If receiving money from the ppp program, they are receiving it with the understanding there is a Nonprofit Organization in Public Schools specifically are not allowed to receive ppp funds. Do you think do you think administration should disclose who the recipients are so it can understand which Charter Schools have been receiving these funds, including those that may have very healthy Balance Sheets backed by wealthy billionaires . I would support transparency in everything the federal government is used is doing. He would call on the Trump Administration to disclose whether or not Charter Schools have been receiving ppp funds in addition to stabilization funds . I will not go so far as to make a grandiose statement when we are here to talk about Public Schools and ppp is out of my realm of expertise, but i agree with you that transparency and everything is very important for government. Thank you for that. We are talking about funding Public Schools. Is that currently, Charter Schools, what you call Public Schools, are drawing from the Stabilization Program intended for a look schools under the cares act, yet they to be not Public Schools because Public Schools, i would say, conventional Public Schools are not able on ppp funds. [phone ringing] [indiscernible] i yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you. The gentlelady from new york. Thank you, chairman, and thank you for testify on this important subject. We have been working closely with teachers, superintendents, get theirs to feedback in real time. Mine is one of the most world used districts in the Mississippi River and certainly in new york. There are some School Districts were up to 50 of students do not have access to broadband. So i echo my colleagues on the that. Ance of closing in addition, ive heard from parents and families of students with special needs who have been woefully underserved during this crisis. I wanted to ask you what are the biggest lessons you have learned onlines of where learning does not meet the needs of students . We learned a lot over the past few months. Many students have completely fallen out of contact with our School System. We have learned that some students who have handson parents have caregivers involved in helping them navigate the new technology. I would like to hear from you what your biggest lessons are from your perspective with a particular focus on rural students. Think you for the question. We are making sure we do everything we can to help students thrive. As the father of a young daughter myself, i can tell you even with the connectivity, it is still a struggle for parents having to step in. Especially parents who are educators themselves, first responders. They were on the front lines educating and saving lives and still are during this crisis while students also needed extra help with Remote Learning. I think that is one of the biggest challenge challenges. There is a glaring issue of lack of lack of connectivity. That we can afford for our teachers to support them in really best practices for Remote Learning. Weve heard a lot personalized learning today and that is the idea that when our students come back, we can do an assessment on where they are and what their ability level is, how much planning they have lost, all of that used the technology to help. Eet them where they are my words are that we have a system that is not a leaders fall. It is a system designed a hundred years ago for an industrial society. We are in the digital age and should use the moment to trance form our education to digital age practices but that will be a heavy lift. It will definitely take support from states and School Districts for our educators. I want to take the moment to thank all of the teachers and educators in my district who i have spoken with and those whom i have not have the opportunity to speak with, they have then rising to the challenge and we could not be prouder of our teachers and students during this time. I yield back and stop i yield back. Thank you. Next is the gentlelady from North Carolina. Thank you. Ourme thank all of witnesses here today. Thank you for your testimony is up or children. I want a shout out to my district and cms and charlotte and my former district in greensboro. Mr. Johnson, thank you for joining the committee. Always great to have an opportunity to talk policy with fellow north carolinians and because of my particular interest in the state of North Carolina and the Public School system, i was on the School Board Many years ago, and im a 40 40 year retired teacher, professor. Will be state specific. I would appreciate if you could have said think answers. We have a short time limit. We both know that the commitment our state made to Public Education did it all the way back to the Great Depression and many other states suffered rampant School Closures. Not one School Closed in north depression. To the since the depression of 2008, priorities have changed and North Carolina is only one of that has not reached pre2009 levels adjusted for inflation. The state is projecting a andnue shortfall in 2019 the 2020, 2 . 6 billion. To ensure thelan north carolinians receive a sound education despite the anticipated shortfall revenue . Him thank you. It is a pleasure to see you and thank you for your questions on North Carolina specifically. Know aeciate that you lot about North Carolina and we appreciate your service. Multiple plans are in place. We are working closely with the North Carolina General Assembly to make sure we protect our education budget as much as possible. We should see the education budget come out soon over the summer. That plus the federal Relief Congress sent to North Carolina, but he met together to see how it helps. Quite frankly getting into the weeds a little bit on one particular thing, we are fortunate in North Carolina, that we live in a state where teachers salaries have increased a lot just in a short amount of time. Last schoololina year, the median teachers sally was more than the Median Household Income will stop it just reached it last year. We are excited that we launched a teach and see program where we want to recruit candidates in our schools because it is such an amazing and important career. We will double down especially when you see all of job losses in our economy and what that could mean. We want to reach these amazing graduates who are graduating from College Colleagues from college. I believe we are on track for hopefully the North Carolina General Assembly to Fund Enrollment Growth in North Carolina. Thank you. I served 20 years in the General Assembly. I know some of the players are still there and what and i 704, and like many of my colleagues, i am very concerned about how they can open safely and. What was your involvement, did you insult consult teachers and parents and Community Leaders in developing it . Absolutely. Teachers, right now, the governors plan is a, b, c. Plan a is getting as many students as back backtoschool possible. Advance social distancing requirements, and social learning. The governor will make this call by july 1. I will have to send you a question in writing. I wanted to know the role you played in the plan. You do not need to answer that , what iset me ask you the best way to spend the cares act fund . Thank you, congresswoman. 59 seconds. Yes, maam. First, it should be spent on dealing with the pandemic. Not do that, the economy and everything we care about will suffer. We will do that first and foremost. The second thing is to address the harm on the people who have been hurt the most. Those things including Distance Learning and doing as much as you can in the schools is the effort. What lessons can Congress Learn from the Great Recession and stayed in School Districts . [phone ringing] was helpful but too small and it ended suit it ended too soon. We had to make cuts that we are still feeling the effects of. I am out of time. I yield back. Thank you. Thank you. The gentleman from georgia. The from georgia, mr. Allen. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Allen is on. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wanted to share with everyone what im hearing in the 12th district of georgia, that we must open the economy. It is critical we get schools open for the new school year. I cannot get anybody to tell me there is another option. This is an important discussion were having today. It is critical that we as a congress and the country come together and try to decide exactly how to move forward. You spoke of some concerns as a citizen on the amount of federal spending as a result of covid19 in your opening remarks. Since you are a teacher, i do not know if you are a math teacher but i thought it would give you a little math we have had to deal with here. October 1 was 300 billion above the Previous Year and about two. Most of this was discretionary totalng, about 30 of the federal budget come which increased from 1. 2 trillion to 1. 5 trillion in three years. In the last three months, it has tripled. Gone from 1. 5 trillion to 5. 5 trillion. Up four times that originally budgeted. I heard the heroes act mentioned theh would double accelerator level from 5. 5 trillion to 8. 8 trillion. The heroes act includes a large tax cut for those who live in states known as the state and oh tax deduction. Educator,en and an how do explain the debt put on the backs of the very children that we are trying to figure out how to get back to school in the fall question mark how do you explain this . Emphasize that i am the father of a sevenyearold. That is one ofu the balances congress has to unfortunately strike in this situation. Need resources for school. There is no doubt about it. We know that the amount of money coming from congress is being dumped in debt and we absolutely want to connect every student. We owe it to every student to wed innovation to make sure get them the tools they need to succeed but we do not want to burden them with even more debt being piled upon them that they will eventually have to pay. Balancesay it is a hard were asking congress to make. We are still working through the funding you have all graciously given us so far. Situation,difficult particularly when were asking educators and everyone across the state in georgia, which was mentioned earlier, to reduce of covid19a result and here, we have the federal government that has almost six times increased spending almost six times to do with this. In economy being restricted because of covid and other reasons that are beyond our scope. Levels,s funding assuming that, i do not know how we will deal with this situation. We put ourselves in a terrible situation. A 3 billione had Rainy Day Fund and we will deal with it. But what have you got to have to get your School System open this fall . Can you give me a number and what you think it looks like for the rest of the country . Have you looked at numbers . Know. I know there is a group of officers working on providing a number. It is very important we put everything together when we make these decisions. You are making some very difficult choices, everyone is. Of this is sometimes, there are tough challenges that we face with a covid19 crisis. I believe we will be able to Work Together and get through it together. As we have done this to save five and that is important that we have got so many other things confronting us right now, and it is difficult. We do not take the spending lightly, i dont. But because it will be a tremendous impact on future generations. We do not even know what the impact will be. Thank you for your time and i will yield act. [phone ringing] thank you. Gentleman from new jersey. Andhank you, mr. Chairman, to our Ranking Member, we appreciate you putting together this hearing. It has been a remarkable time in the country given what has gone on in the last few years. A reflection. When we look at our children, who are our future, this is why it is so important that when we do open, we open the right way. We have seen what happens across with a spike coming out after when you open the wrong way. To my colleagues who suggested do not matter, it certainly did to the children who would be in those facilities. Old schools have us pestis, they have led lead. Now they have covid. Scott introduced a bill to address that. But i just want to talk about what is going on, the massive revenue loss, which is important, but it is the children that is the primary goal. I asked a number of teachers how they are dealing with it. That they can react and see different nuances when a child is left behind. Is critical. How are teachers dealing with this when there is a description or an issue when you cannot hear it. Think you for the question. Cannot tell you how proud i am of our teachers all over the country who are once again standing in the gaps for our students. I talked to one of the teachers she spent almost 1000 to get a Technology Device what she could do exactly youre talking about, where she could see her students working through the math problem so she can identify where they are having problems. That is the kind of investment that we need. I will tell you that it is that we can find money to bail out billionaires corporations,es, and we cannot invest in our theirts right now and in futures. Unacceptable. We have our teachers who are stepping up, but we need our government to step up. Different ages act in different ways. When you have a smaller child who has the guidance of a parent or a guardian, and then something happens to students. It is a challenge we have to continue. About reopening schools. There will be a new normal. , how thislooks like pandemic and virus reacts, that is what it will depend on. What steps are you taking because some months is the construction season, an opportunity to prepare schools for the upcoming year, only a couple of months away. What guidance have you had preparing physical schools for a pandemic and children coming back in september . Thank you. We are fortunate to have a highly respected medical community. So we have been working with University Hospitals who have put together a team coming into our buildings and walking the buildings with us to let us know him cementsafely ohio and the cdcs guidance. You say there is guidance. But these are standards and not enforceable by anybody. You are accepting them, is that correct . Governor dewine has not yet released his guidance so we do not know if it will be through an order or whether it will be guidance. Mandatesis have been of how industry should run and then best practices. I anticipate we will have mandatory public house rules Public Health rules. This is why we have another bill directly related to how employees, teachers, and more we need standards. That is my call. This is an issue. I yield back. Quested is a very important issue. Continue to learn through the unprecedented time. So proud of the work being done. There was talk of internet access. The big problem with broadband many family families did not have the access they needed. So one of the and they drove around throughout the community and stop the different areas. Reating internet hubs one example of Creative Solutions we have taken right here in our community. My son who was a junior will now be a senior in the district where we live. I am so pleased to see a tremendous effort the teachers took to ensure that the learning continued. One example of a teacher ran some sort of contest to keep students engaged an online and took personal time to drop drop off a Gift Certificate to a local starbucks for my son. It shows you the impact teachers are making across the country. We appreciate all of the work. This does create a massive funding issue. One comment on that, the longer we are closed down, the more additional revenue is lost. I have been disappointed in pennsylvania. The curve was literally crushed here. Hospitals were never overwhelmed. But we are far behind other states in the opening. Everyday we do that, it is not only additional revenue that is lost that could be going to schools, but it is also additional businesses that may not come back to reinvigorate the economy when it opens. That weit is urgent continue to safely reopen to allow businesses that can safely reopen to do so as quickly as possible. I was talking a long time it did not get to a lot of questions. In i was very interested in one of your comments in regards to competencybased learning as opposed to measuring, i believe this was you, as opposed to measuring i have always been an advocate of. We should move students along based on what they know im not necessarily amount of time they were sitting in the seats. But you said you potentially had learned some things through this that you may be able to apply. I was curious what you meant by that. Thank you. We need to believed light our Education System so it focuses on learning and not just a forced march. There is no science thats a story for kids can only learn english Language Arts from 9 07 to 10 11 monday through friday. That is not a design for learning. We have a decade of work trying to create more in cleveland. What we learned in this shutdown, and you heard it from my colleagues in North Carolina, different kids responded differently. Children struggled more with the digital platforms in general than older students with disabilities. And then based on need. Parent wrote to me very upset she had three children, and is a single parent. Want her making sure her kids do all of this stuff and she is overwhelmed. Even things like that have an impact. It is pushed my team and i. We scheduled student parent opposedconferences, as to everyone gets a call every day or every week. That mom cannot take a call every day. I think we did more and better for our kids because of the effort to find out where that family [phone ringing] already butof time i want to say thank you for your leadership. It has been tough in many different areas including education but, perhaps we will learn a few things about how to do things differently. That is true and telemedicine. Also will see some positive changes in terms of how we approach education. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Gentlelady from washington. Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. This hearing is incredibly timely as demonstrators and activist across the country or calling on elected a feed elected leaders to correct longstanding funding inequities that disproportionately harm black people. Far too long, funding for militarized Police Forces for black communities is prioritized instead of equitable Public Education for the same communities. Im deeply troubled that the pandemic will only further widen it achievement gaps for black students, low income students, and students of color. While 96 of k12 funding is constitutionally protected, we are all incredibly concerned that it would still be subjected a 7 billion budget shortfall projected over the next three years in our state, School Employee hiring freezes and layoffs seem likely without federal support, especially when staffing makes up a out 85 of k12 costs in my district. Thank you for your testimony in your work. How do staff custis proportionally hurt students of color and low income students . Absolutely. History,hat throughout when we have a crisis, it will disproportionately impact black and brown students, Student Living in poverty, and students with special needs. We are already not providing resources they need when they needed. This pandemic is just like every other crisis throughout history that has impacted them. We know they were already in school with highclass sizes hi class sizes high class sizes. We know over 500,000 more teachers will be laid off and that will increase class sizes. With talk about 50 over covid19. We know if we will try to practice guidelines of social distancing, if we have fewer staff, we know they will be impacted at a greater degree. Then we also know, and this is what i have heard all over the country, that they know they trauma prepare now for informed practice. We cannot do that if we do not have enough teachers and counselors and support professionals to surround our students with the care and nurturing they need to try and help them with the Emotional Trauma they have been experiencing over the three months. So absolutely those students will need that Additional Support and so we are asking everyone to ensure that we lift up our voice right now so they get what they need. Incredibly important. Let me ask you a followup question. Secretary devos stated she planned to move ahead with a policy that would transfer cares act dollars from Public Schools to wealthier private ones. That is a departure from the usual practice of how federal funding for Equitable Services is allocated under title i. As an educator, knowing the amount of learning lots, we have already seen among students of color due to the pandemic, could you tell us what impact such a policy decision would have on high poverty schools . Impact that secretary devoss decision had throughout her tenure. It is why hundreds of thousands of educators all over the rose up and said she should not be confirmed. She is not fit for her office. She is the most uncalled unqualified secretary for education we have ever had. In the middle of this crisis, she is still trying to promote her scheme around privatization. Standing up and calling that out. We thank you for including language to call that out. Thank you. Wise direct aid dedicated to k12 so important . It is a crucially important because our schools are so important. We want to be sure they are protected and the education of our kids is protected. We need a range of tools to provide Fiscal Relief. A key part of that is directed to schools. What scale is needed to direct the crisis . Trillion an1 infusion of proximally 58 billion in nearly a trillion in aid to local governments and the heroes act. What scale do you think is weary question mark are projecting over 600 billion for states only. Roughly oneunt for third. That gets you somewhere around 200. Then you have additional shortfalls on the local level plus additional cost of doing with covid and opening up safely. It is a substantial sum that schools need. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. [indiscernible] gentlemen from indiana. Can you hear me now . I can. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the hearing because ive it i believe it is the most important conversation in america the moment. How do we get our kids back in the classroom . I am pleased to see a number of colleagues in the hearing room. I believe we have cheapened the not havingn today by an inperson hearing. I hope we will make up for it in the near future and perhaps have many more committing Committee Hearings in the days to come. What will it take to get our kids back in the classroom question mark superintendent johnson, we have something in common. We have young kids. I have a first grader, secondgrader, and fourthgrader. It has been tragic watch what they have gone through and trying to get a good education through Virtual Learning. Studies are showing that Virtual Learning has failed to provide an adequate Educational Opportunity to our kids. Conversation what will it take to get our kids the education they deserve . Land ofs the opportunity because we guarantee an Educational Opportunity to every kid in this great country. We are about to leave a generation of kids behind if we do not do Everything Possible to get our kids back in the classroom in the fall. From what you have told us that theu and i agree education the kids have received through Virtual Learning is far inferior to it they receive in the classroom. Is that correct . Yes. I think we will have analytics we death with have stories from not just students, but educators, themselves and everything theyre doing, they truly have been champions during the crisis. But they know that this is no replacement for having students in the classroom even when there is at least more in their control during Remote Learning, that they are putting in the effort. They see the results every day. This is no substitution for being in the classroom. There is no doubt. Our teachers are the superheroes trying to do whatever it takes to deliver education to the kids. I have not spoken to a single teacher that tells me that kids do not deserve to be in the classroom in the fall and they shouldnt be in the fall, that they should remain at home receiving an inferior education. Teachers understand better than anybody that that experience in the classroom is far superior to what they experienced over the last few months. It has been a lot of talk about money. What else do i was schools need to accomplish the end goal of opening classrooms in the fall . Can you talk about Liability Protection . A lot of leaders call me and say that Liability Protections can you talk about that . What else will it take to move the conversation toward doing whatever is possible to get our kids in the classroom . Thank you. We are awaiting guidance from the governor in North Carolina. That will be a Pivotal Moment for our schools. Are we going to try to get as many students back as possible, or do we have to shift to strategies that promote social distancing, which we know already the challenges that will bring with time to get students on the school bus and in the classroom. It will be an uphill challenge. For liability, that is something that more and more educators are looking for action from elected leaders. Whatever School Looks Like when we go back in the fall, we do not want educators to have to if,y about he held liable heaven for bid, there is a threat of covid19 or beyond that, just being liable for ising sure that student keeping a face mask on. In North Carolina, it will not be at wired a requirement but it shows how it is different statebystate. Anything the federal government can do to help giving assurance of educators around the liability question would be appreciated. Gopro teacher. Teachers are expected Liability Protection. Yes. I believe it is something education leaders and educators would very much support. Have your read the cdc guidelines and recommendations . Reasonable . I do believe and i hope that they can be reasonably accommodated. We in North Carolina are looking that as a baseline. We hope to get as many students back in school as safely as possible. It will be difficult. Screening students before they come to schools is something were doing a lot of work on. How do you practically make that happen to ensure the guideline is met but you also cannot interrupt the school. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. Gentleman from new york. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for your leadership throughout the crisis. And for providing the committee a number of ways to go for your briefings and adhering virtually to continuing vital work. Subject of this conversation, shortfalls, but it really and local government, as a result of covid, are devastating. Thegrateful to have opportunity to have this conversation about that. Challenges and losses are at an unprecedented scale. Some elect the virus, we have seen 22 states are seeing an increase in the number of cases, something we experienced in new york some weeks ago. Our numbers are down dramatically. Had ahester, we have relatively flat curve. Even as we regain our footing if that is the case, we have a real opportunity to be intentional about what we do in terms of revenues and about guarding against future fallout. That is why think it is such an important conversation. Statet many years in the assembly. Im interested in the impact this has on State Governments as was noted earlier, the revenue lawsontis a pity it somewhere in the neighborhood of 615, 6 20 billion, here in new york, the loan of 14 we provide isall, a State Government a more per capita through kate for k12 in the state in the nation. Will beity to do that dramatically impacted on the quality of education will be impacted as well. The other thing this has pointed out, and im commented on some things that were already discussed, is the real divide when you look at disparities between some communities are than an world that do not have access to broadband or devices and the more and more we try to compensate for the inability to be together by using distancelearning, that divide and disparity grows worse and worse particularly among canaries of color. I think the teachers throughout the country have done an amazing job, like our Health Care Workers have gone above and expected ofver was them to try and accommodate will students, and they all work through the summers as has been said. Teachers start thinking about the fall in june as the year starts to end. I think others could pitch in bulimic go back a little bit. Northwest Evaluation Association will be at least a 30 when a loss of reading and 50 learning loss as a result of school closings. That is on top of the learning loss we of already talked about. If we could just talk about the impact or maybe comment on the lack of access to quality Remote Learning, who is impacting vulnerable students, and they are falling further and further behind. What to you expect congress should do to try and address that and help students adapt to Remote Learning particularly in vulnerable populations . Thank you. I think congress will need to take a long view of recovery for fragile communities. It is not actually learning loss. Our children can stern let still learn learning and reading. The time was will take time to make up. Immediately, we are asking for support to keep districts whole. Were looking at how we personalize and really start where each child is, assess where they are and how they move forward. My biggest fear come we know in past recessions, Public Institutions come out much more slowly. If the country is up and humming and everyone forgets that we have to make up this for children over time, and we do ,ot fund the title programs those programs designed for these children, that is where we will fail because educators need to work more deeply with more time for these fragile communities then they would. Before i run out of time, you yearoned twelvemonth the school years. Do you expect that will be the norm as we try to get back the lost time . In cleveland, we already have several yearround schools. We know from the evidence that three weeks is about the length before you start to see regression in learning. We have three weeks off. Would have the whole system it is a cost issue. A learningks to give time and students, four more weeks but it is the right way to go. It lets us rethink the old calendar. Thank you very much. Thank you. Gentleman from North Carolina, mr. Walker. Mr. Walker. Gentleman from kentucky. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to stay for the i am in the committee room. I believe it is important for congress to lead by example. I believe it is important that we reopen our economy and that congress should lead by example, which takes me to my first. Uestion a lot of my colleagues have stated the obvious that many School Districts across america, if not every School District, will be faced with huge budget challenges. Covid19 a result of and having them temporarily shut the economy down. It is imperative that we get serious about reopening the economy. Betterates have done a job of safely reopening the economy than others. I think it is something that is as we talko note about funding challenges in Public Education as we move forward. One complaint i have always heard from School Superintendents, school board members, administrators and School Districts, is that a lot of times, they have adequate budgets but they do not have flexibility to spend the money in programs that they see fit that work better in local areas. Law, are thel things that have not been addressed today that would be useful for local School Districts . Yes. I will highlight that we both would appreciate flexibility around highstakes assessments at the and of the year. There is work going on around that. Possibly a drive to have something to address the covid19 crisis. In my Childrens Department in North Carolina, they would appreciate some flexibility on the time of their requirements, not throwing out any requirements when it comes to serving students who need the most service from educators, but looking at the timeline from those requirements given the unbelievable challenges we will face coming up in this next school year. Thank you. Hopefully, it is something this in a bipartisan way to give more flexibly as we move forward. Speaking of bipartisan, at the beginning of the pandemic, i totnered with my colleague issues legislation which allowed School Officials to distribute food and any number of settings across our most crucial nutrition programs and allow for flexibility on meal components if the food requirement is is distracted. Im grateful we prioritize those affected by coronavirus and happy that trump signed it into law. Having worked with Food Service Directors and now as a member of i know theity, issues do not go away as soon as student stepped back into the classroom doors and i recommend i recognize the amount of planning that goes into our program. Some are considering adopting modified schedules were other alternative education delivery methods for the fall semester. Can you describe how the andibility has been helpful are there any waivers that would be especially beneficial as you plan for the next school year . Absolutely. Thank you for the question. This is something where the waivers have been very crucial for Meal Delivery services for our students and titos main categories you can think of. We were using school buses to deliver meals to students. You might have a group of students or parents flexibility around raw string and being able to hand out the meals is extremely helpful. Workers who are not able to go in and perform services, being able to use other employees to help fill in those roles has been very helpful as well. I would encourage the federal rescind those waivers. Hopefully we can go back to school as normal as possible. Hopefully remote Meal Delivery, we will rely on those again. If i may, mr. Johnson, in your view, what is the biggest challenge for districts trying to adapt to education beside the lack of broadband in many rural areas like my Congressional District question life that is already been discussed heavily in these hearings. What are the challenges for the School Districts to try to adapt . People are social creatures by nature. Screenot learn over a well. Has in that teacher classroom, it cannot be underestimated or undervalued. Ouropefully we can get School Districts opened just after labor day. Were trying to get things back normal as quickly as possible. I yield back. I thank you. Feedback in the last exchange. We could hear ok but there was an echo. Useeople in the room would earphones, that would cut out most of that echo. The young lady from pennsylvania. Thank you. I would like to direct my first question to of the National Association at the beginning of the pandemic, many schools moved instruction online and engaged in a Remote Learning. Because of structural inequities that we know exist in the Public Education system, schools with more resources adjusted to Remote Learning much more quickly. , pennsylvania seven, School District with more resources and higher income families were able to begin online instruction weeks before the neighboring School Districts , which receive less funding and more low income students. The transition to Online Learning exacerbates loss among students, meaning that students will lose the educational and had onceprogress they achieved. My question to you is what do you expect to see as a result of the uneven transition to Remote Learning as we move forward and get children back in the classroom . That, have some students been disproportionately been left behind in the transition to Remote Learning . Thank you. Absolutely. We know that. We could have anticipated because we know that over 12 million of our students across the country did not have access to the internet or to digital to lose that allowed them to continue their learning. You vary exactly the way described it, based on whether or not the School Districts of the families of communities had resources or whether they did not. We have too many students living in poverty. Students of color who not only didnt have digital polls but they had parents with two or three jobs who are social workers and could not sit down to actually make sure they were connected. Or the families might have had a device but everyone in the family had to use the same device, and if the parent had to use those devices to continue to studentssaw that our were not able to join. We heard from teachers all over the country where they had maybe only 50 of students present in the classroom. They know that the learning for students is interrupted. Theyre looking at ways right now that they could reach out and they have been doing that after hours, reaching out to students and parents in trying to make up for that, going in sitting outside. We have teachers who are doing that. We know these are issues, the Digital Divide is not new. We put together collaboration back in february. Are fighting hard to make sure the federal government theides resources to close gap. Asking for an additional 4 billion to do that to invest in the program. Thank you. You anticipated my next question. Go above most teachers and beyond what is expected of , thatnd required of them they really have a passion to helping students learn. It is something to be commended. How can schools start preparing to address the learning loss the students have experienced as a result of the Interactive School year . What kinds of challenges do you think students and teachers will face as we move into fall . Lets assume everyone is back in school. Let me tell you what were talking about today. We have a shared responsibility. We are asking everyone to come together and do their part. We are having conversations trying to make sure that everything, including social emotional needs, are being met. We are beginning work before they go back to school. Even when they get back to need to be sure they come back to school in safe environments. Do not feel safe and supported, they cannot learn. We are working hard with educators and lawmakers elected and appointed officials, to be sure we have the resources students need and educators to meete parents need, the needs of every student. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. My distinguished colleague from virginia. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to echo the comments of ev