Transcripts For CSPAN2 Former Education Secretary Duncan Others Testify On Opening Schools... 20240712

Not immune. This is about two hours. People come to order. Without objection, with recent subcommittee it is time. I recognize myself for an opening statement. On july 11, President Trump tweeted it would be bad for him politically if schools opened before the november election. The threat that he would cut off funding if not reopened. Yesterday he said, and i quote, my view is schools should open. It will go away like things go away and schools should be open. The president position of how to reopen schools to paraphrase the press secretary, for science to stand in the way. I fundamentally disagree. Schools must reopen based on science and safety, not politics and wishful thinking. To agree, though schools are critically important for the children and our families. My first job after i graduated college was as a High School History teacher. My wife was a skilled librarian. I remember the anticipation at the start of school. Two of my grandchildren school age and i know they are feeling the anticipation now. To focus on how to reopen safely to testing. I hoped the administration would implement these measures and the schools to safely reopen in the fall but fortunately, this is not possible in much of the country. The virus is still raging across the because unlike you, we didnt step down in the first place. We cannot make the same mistake with our schools. We need to follow the science. First, children can get the crona virus and pass it onn to others. The president claims that children are, and iil quote, almost immune to this disease, and of quote. But last week, and i quote, children do get infected. We know that, so therefore they are not immune. Evidence has started to pile up at summer camps. Last week, 76 of children at a ymca camp in georgia had the virus. Its been documented in florida, new york, texas, South Carolina, louisiana and some other states. Nationwide more than 338,000 children have tested positive for the virus. Second, the cdc has the key consideration for opening schools as the highest risk of spreading the disease. The cdc director has warned that a virus hotspot may need to be for some amount of time. It was reported last week that 21 are in socalled red zones because they have these rates rising. Reopening schools in these hotspots presents risks. Third even if schools are outside of the red zone, cdc experts and other scientists had urged schools considering reopening to take steps to limit transmission. That includes improving School Ventilation systems, practicing social distancing andd Wearing Masks. S. Our schools faced life or death decisions because of the administrations inexcusable failure to get the virus under control over the last six months. But there are steps the federal government can take for schools to reopen in person and to stay open. Like the doctors told us last week we cant control depend on but Wearing Masks and practicing social distancing. The president needs to follow and promote this expert advice dot denigrate and distract from it. Relevant threats to withhold funding as the resources it needs to get Students Learning remote or in person. We must provide sufficient funding to meet these needs. Ls must also include the funds into heroes act to provide mobile hotspots to students and subsidies to make the internet affordable foril lowincome families. I urge my colleagues to support these investments and our children. Whlook forward to hearing from our witnesses to speak from deep expertise and experience in education. I also invite secretary devos to testify why shes pressing schools to fully reopen despite the risks. I offered to accommodate her schedule, but she refused to appear. I find that hard to understand. Our secretary, devos, that is to lead the nations effort to safely educate our children during this pandemic and she refuses to speak directly to congress and the American People. I will now yield to my friend, the distinguishedhe ranking memr for his opening remarks. Than thank you mr. Chairman. I appreciate you calling this hearing. I do want to mention since the president mentioned a spokesperson to finish the quote was started by the chairman she said the science is on our side here. We encourage the localities and states simply follow the science, open our schools. That is the president s spokesperson on that issue. Last week the nations top official urged the importance for americas children to safely reopen schools for facetoface learning, for Mental Health, physical health and the Public Health of our children. Doctor redfield testified under oath its important to realize that is in the Public Health interest for the students to get back to facetoface learning. There are consequences of the school closure. I do think its important to realize it isnt Public Health versus the economy about the School Reopening. Cdc guidance further adds the harms attributed to close schools on the social, emotional and Behavioral Health and economic wellbeing and academic achievement of children in both the short and long term are well known and significant. Aside from a troubled home, no other setting has more influence on a Childs Health and wellbeing than their school. Doc or fauci said last week School Reopening czar important, but the psychological welfare of children, the fact many children rely on schools for nutrition, breakfast, healthy lunches. At the United Nations general secretary just this week called the situation around the globe, quote, a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential. Mr. Chairman of the overwhelming consent among the Public Health community is the state and development of more than 50 million american children. It is critical to safely reopen schools for an inPerson Learning. Lets get more specific. The federal child abuse prevention and treatment act requires each state to have procedures requiring teachers and other personnel to report known or suspected instances of child abuse and neglect. This came up during last weeks hearing as well. Weve seen the report child abuse dropped by an average of 40 compared to the levels reported during the same period in 2019. That doesnt mean child abuse has stopped or dropped by 40 . It just means its not getting discovered because our teachers were doing such a great job of doing that. Now the children are home with those parents that were abusing them and its not getting htected. Imagine the damage to tens of thousands of our children because of that. The evidence from hospitals strongly suggests child abuse has actually increased during the pandemic. Teachers cant report what they cant see and as a result, thousands of children are being abused in america today. We cannot sit by and make excuses. We need to follow the safety guideline and stand up for those children who are counting on us to take action and do our job. Our children in america need us to do what we know we can do. They dont need excuses. They need us to look at these challenges and recognize how to overcome them and there are roadmaps everywhere from the cdc to the American Academy of pediatrics to so many other organizations. Doctor redfield added last week, quote we are seeing far greater suicides now and we are deaths from covid. More from Drug Overdose then we have from covid. I know we are used to seeing the charts and we mourn every death from covid, but why dont we talk about the other deaths that are happening because people are shopping him, because people ar staying home . We cannot act like we are living in a c vacuum, in silos. When children are not in school, there are devastating things having to do. I understand we want to make sure that we have a safe environment, but we cannot use that as an excuse. We have to figure out how to do it. We cant talk about how hard it is to do. A lot of people do hard work everyday. Every day. People are going to hospitals every day. Going to grocery stores, working on the front lines. They do it because they know everybody else is relying on them. We need to have that new attitude. On the other side of the equation, the cdc advises the best Available Evidence indicates that it poses relatively low risks to school age children, children appear to be the lowest risk for contracting covid19. As of july 17 the United States reported children and adolescents accounted for 7 , and less than 1 of covid19 related deaths. If we focus on the wellbeing of our children, the question really is and should be reopened, the question is why havent we started planning more widespread to reopen safely. All schools can be giving this. Weve seen it even in hot spots and now we see schools that are not in hotspots trying to figure out how not to reopen. Its not like inventing the wheel. Others have figured it out. We need to share that learning experience with everybody. The virus continues to pose a serious threat. They gave us five things every american should do and testified to have a f dramatic impact. I know the chairman talked about thisis as well, Wearing Masks ai know we are all doing. Social distancing, hygiene, being smart about gatherings, staying out of crowded bars and areas. If we do those five things we have done the modeling data. We get the same bang for the buck. We should do all of those things and also encourage states to reopen. We know that they present some challenges. The good news is each one of those challenges can be responsibly addressed. We are not talking about a one size fits all model. Hotspots move around each one can be responsibly addressed. The main concerns are for teachers. Children may not be at great risk for getting sick that they can spread the virus. Teachers at high risk factors, like any other person in a high risk factor anywhere else to go to work knows that there are risks you can help address. Smart School Reopening will ensure that its greatly reduced and the chance of spreading within the school is also medicated. Teachers can be socially distanced by assigning Virtual Learning responsibilities or other new tasks associated with mitigating the risk of spreading covid. Teachers are just 6 feet away when the nearest student come in many are over 10 feet away for the nearest student and they are all Wearing Masks. Many have adopted the guidelines and send them screaming. Every day. Have their own type of safety and their own into their own hands. They can take their temperatures, complete a checklist for symptoms. If the child or Family Member exhibits any of those things, te child should just stay home. While no plan is perfect, cdc and the American Academy of pediatrics have laid out guidelines for safely reopen in americas schools and they address those concerns. The guidelines should be followed by everybody. Once in school, students, faculty and staff should wear masks and have access to easy hand sanitizing beauty thats why we put over 150 million out there for the states, a lot of which by the way he is Still Available and can be used by the schools today. They dont need to wait for congress to pass a new bill. There is over almost 100 billion available to our schools and anybody else who needs it. Temperature checks the students move throughout the building part in required physical distance and all things mentioned. 6 feet or more per desk and many schools are doing platoons. Improves and deletion by opening windows. Many are looking at conducting classes outdoors when possible, increase wiped downs of chairs, equipment, these are guidelines that have been laid out. If someone gets sick and we know what is goinit is going to happa plan in place to follow the recommendations. Weve already laid out how to do thait if these things happen. The School Systems should be wondering what to do in this situation, that should have been planned weeks ago and if they didnt start, planned today. Talk to the others that are opening up next week in my own home state of louisiana we have schools opening in next week and theyve gone through the guidelines and would be happy to share that with anybody that is willing. Washington, d. C. Just announced that their schools will not be open in the fall. Not one child under the age of 18 has died from covid in the entire district of columbia and yet they are shutting down all schools. If they followed all of the guidelines we just listed in considering the devastating damage to these children, how can you justify the harm that you are doing to the hundreds of thousands by shutting down in Person Learning . Those kids arere going to suffer and we all know it. The data and the science is there a. The reports are there about what damage it does to the kids if the schoolofthe schools are not. Education is a local responsibility as we know and each school must adapt to their unique challenges. Thats why th the cbc laid thist in their guidance and it makes it clear a school in a hotspot must be more cautious than a school where transmission is low. Schools can and must develop a plan to resume in Person Learning. Stay us are too high and the ability to dramatically lower the risk to be easily attainable than to have a debate about whether or not it can be done. Of course it can be done, and it is being done in hotspots in places where its not a hotspot, yet its not being done in places where its not a hotspot. In conclusion i want to thank you for holding the hearing and the witnesses that we are about to hear from. Y our teachers have faced a challenge in the spring they had to deal with closing schools early and put out new guidelin guidelines. Parents including myself. Everybody has stepped up to the plate and has had to answer the call to this challenge we are facing. I want to thank the teachers and the parents for what theyve done and what they are preparing to do to help educate over 50 million children who are countingco on us. I want to send a thank you to all of that are helping us get schools reopened and to have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream we owe to them to give them that opportunity and with that i will yield back. Thank you to the Ranking Member for his statement and id now like to introduce the witnesses. I am honored to have the former secretary of education with us today. Secretary duncan led the department of education from 2009 through 2015. Prior to his service, secretary duncan led schools for eight years. Since leaving government hes returned to chicago where he works to help improve opportunities for young people. We are also joined by a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Doctor rivers is an epidemiologist, specializing in emerging Infectious Diseases in a recent analyst for the National Academics of science on reopening schools during the corona virus pandemic. We are also pleased to be joined by t superintendent robert of Broward County Public Schools in florida. I would like to yield to my colleague and friend congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz that represents Broward County for a brief introduction. Thank you mr. Chairman, cochairman clyburn and the subcommittee on the corona virus for allowing me to introduce an esteemed witness from my district. The largest and secondlargest in florida. And education of nearly 270,000 students and 175,000 burning adults of 241 schools comes into his, colleges and 89 charter schools. Under his leadership of our students have seen improved literacy and graduation rates, College Acceptance and curvier readiness. Hes also expanded technical programs, established the First Military academy and access to speech and debate, arts, music, education and spam offering. I can personally speak for the superintendence skillful leadership. He graduated from a Broward County Public Schools and my youngest daughter is currently a senior in the district. During the pandemic, the superintendence worked with the school board, principal, teachers, staff, parents and students to ensure everyone remains safe and that their education is not compromised. Its noo easy task at the helm f our states. Each one are even threatening to withhold funds if they do not return in person while a virus way just for the community and just as the cases spike even higher. Yesterday total cases topped 500,000, people are dying. It would only put more people at risk. The superintendent is paving a path way beginning the School Year Online and keeping children, staff and students safe more than other districts will be able to follow. Im thrilled to introduce them so you can see why he is a remarkable leader of our Broward County Public Schools. Thank you mr. Chairman and i will yield back. Thank you ms. Wasserman schultz. Next im pleased to introduce [inaudible] teaches second grade in that Unified School District in eastern arizona. Strictly following the cdc School Guidance precautions as students [inaudible] while Teaching Summer School together. One of her colleagues has recovered but ms. Bird had been a School Teacher for 38 years. She was a wife, mother, grandmother and i know her passing has been devastating to her family, her students and the community. Ms. Gibbons, i am truly sorry for the loss of your friend and colleague and i appreciate your willingness to speak with us today and share your experiences. Finally, we are joined by the director of cyber and National Security intot the network at e foundation for research on equal opportunity. The witnesses will be unmutated so we can swear them in. Please raise your right hands. Do you affirm, swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I do. Let the record show that the witnesses entered in the affirmative. Without objection or statements will be needed for the record. With that you are now recognized for your testimony. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Members, thank you for allowing me to offer. We are funding off one or c twof several at once. First is the pandemic itself that began as a natural disaster. Second is the abject failure of leadership from the federal government. It is a manmade catastrophe that led to the worst economic crisis since the great depression. At the same time, we are also facing americas long history of suspended racism which has the most damaging effects in the nations schools. Today, the crises have come to a head at once. Some of the americans at risk paying the highest price or our children. The question is how can schools reopen in the midst of a pingback. We all want our children to go back to school in person. Everyone is united on that. Parents, students and teachers but we can only allow it if it is safe and everyone is looking to the federal government should the leadership and the absence of a plan, superintendence are being left on these decisions on their own. As a nation we are asking them to solve problems. The federal government has been making it worse and we are asking them to make potentially life and death decisions. They are asking 15,000 School Districts in health care providerhealthcareproviders witl resources and a expertise to secure a physical infrastructure, redesigned systems, rethink the transaction systems and reenter the Mental Health systems that are already stretched and they are also asking teachers that may be at high risk to go to School Every Day with where they might catch covid19 and bring it home to their families. And were asking them to do all of these things under the threat othat the president saying the reopen ort else, telling schools to choose between safeguarding of getting the funding they desperately need. Lets be clear even if we do manage to secure the school if we dont keep the rest of the communities healthyst and safe,e will all remain at risk. The bottom line is if we want our kids to go back to school safely, the single most important thing wehe can do has nothing to do with education at all and that is a beer in this situation because the federal leadership failed us. It didnt have to be this way. If we had gotten what was necessary, wearing a mask, social distancing, Contact Tracing, because recouped. We would be sitting here today with a better chance of the districts safely reopening. If congress had at the schools back in the spring, local communities could address the gaps and exacerbate. Manmade catastrophes are tragic but they can also be repaired and the time to startis is now. First Congress Needs to deploy where they are needed most. That should include 200 million. We should bebe targeting primary to those that are most honorable, students with disability and englishlanguage learners at this it has been done in the previous Disaster Relief bills. But also to a National Initiative we have millions of collegef students, graduates, retired individuals in a nationwide resource to provide tutoring to those that need to gain. The federal government could spur this idea with the private sector leaders. 50 billion in child care funds should be included so that this a central system cannot continue to serve the community including our teachers and school staff. 7 billion to close the Digital Divide between the haves and havenots. That is what they should be doing it here is what we should not i be doing. We should not be delaying the start of the school year. Our children have lost four too much valuable learning time. The schools need to begin. But whether they are in person, remote or a high risk model, that is when they have to vary from place to place and very importantly, the goal cannot just be opening schools. It must be keeping them open because if we open them up and close them a short time later that will create more chaos and confusion. We do not need any of that. Students, parents, teachers, staff they all need and deserve stability. So we should be focused on starting schools in whatever way is safe and responsible with a goal of bringing more students back over time. I desperately wish that we could go back to earlier this year and changed the way that this was managed from the start, but they cant. What we can do is act now so we dont keep making matters worse. What we cannot do is something that hasnt been done yet by this administration and this put our students com, our children t and center and make these decisions. Dont they deserve that, dont the American People deserve to . Thank you again chairman clyburn and Ranking Members. Appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today and i look forward to taking your questions. Thank you, mr. Duncan. We will now turn to doctor rivers you are now recognized. Chairman clyburn, ranking rag member scalise and members of the committee they give you the opportunity to speak with you today about reopening schools during the pandemic. Weve been looking at this since they first closed in march. As im sure my colleagues will attest, they play multiple roles in the communities. They educate our children, they provide health care, access to Mental Health services, niels and health care for working parents. In so many ways they are the flywheel of our society that we are not here today because anyone disputes the value of school. Schools did not close in march because of this but they closed because of the pandemic, because we care a great deal of protecting children and teachers and families at home and assuring that their health and safety is a top priority. We know more about the virus then we did in march. We know children are less likely to experience severe illness than adults and often infections are so mild and they are not even detected. Nationwide less than 10 of recognized coronavirus cases were in children but we also know there are more infections that are not detected and they only see the tip off the iceber. Children are less likely to die than adults, less than 1 were in kids but less than 1 is not the same as zero. Tragically 488 people between the ages of zero and 24 have died of covid19 as of july 29 according to the cdc. And they are also workplaces for teachers, staff who may be at high risk because of their age and the children are returned home to a Family Member many of whom may be older adults are undermining health conditions. Although many gaps remain its become increasingly clear that it is possible for children to spread the virus. Multiple outbreaks have been described in children. Recently a report of an outbreak oat a summer camp in georgia found nearly half of campers were infected. The camp closed a few days after opening. There are still some open questions about whether children are as infectious as adults or somewhat less likely to spread. Atth the risk caret is the importance of the mitigation efforts to slow the spread. On that front we also know more now than we did in march. For social distancing and hygiene is now clear that universal masks and ventilation and airt circulation are important for reducing the risk. Limiting the number of contacts which in the School Setting may mean hybrid approaches or cohorts are important options as well but above all the most important factor in determining whether schools can safely reopening is the prevalence of the disease in the community. Communities that have a lot of virus circulating have a tougher time reopening safely vent places underti better control. Help these factors come together, the importance of schools, the rest of the virus to children, teachers and family, local disease prevalence, dedication measures, this is probably the most complex decision we are facing inx this pandemic. We all want in Person Learning that when and how we can make that happen and how can we do it as safely as possible is the question at hand. The final word on these decisions should be left to community. How communities way of the risk and benefit and Resources Available to support the interest of learning will vary from placeil to place. The decisionmaking process should include a coalition of staff, families, Health Officials and other stakeholde stakeholders. Communities cant decide alone and cant implement a loan. N. School leaders and families are not expert and epidemiology. They need clear guidance and Technical Support of the Public Health authorities at all levels of our state and local. For example cdc documents on the School Reopening distinguish substantial control for the potential uncontrolled spread and may encourage consideration of School Closures for the latter for the controlled spread. For the guidance on the indicators and thresholds mightt differentiate between become co and uncontrolled Hope Communities to better assess their local conditions. Districts also need supplemental funding to implement the medication measures to slow the spread and support the technologies and services needed to deliver Remote Learning. And they need to be able to make decisions appropriate to the prevalence, tolerance and capacity to implement mitigation measures without fear of having the funds withheld or the decision underlined. Although weve learned a lot about the virus in the last few months, there are still many questions unanswered. The cdc and the nih should put in place now the necessary studies to collect data on the questions which could include the degree to which asymptomatic children are infectious, which mostation measures are important for how the Remote Learning can be affected and how to approach these issues with respect to underlining the educational and equity. The better inform your decisions will be and we can be sure that there will be many more difficult decisions ahead including those between now and when they find a vaccine that is accessible to all americans. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Gibbons, you are now recognized. Thank you, chairman clyburn and distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to testify today and a special thank you to the congresswoman Debbie Wassermanu schultz for her leadership and relentless support and advocacy for our children. In less than two weeks Howard County Public Schools will start school year. The first day of school has always been a day of great anticipation and excitement at every one of the 30,000 pinkies welcome back almost 270,000 of our precious children into the classrooms providing valuable learning opportunities for our kids offering engaging experiences. Thats what we live for. The pandemic has changed all of that. Bit is disappointing not to ben a position to open the schools safely. March 13, we announced the closing of the School Campus is due to the pandemic and within just a few short days we became a lifeline for many in the community. We continue to distribute food and since then have servedd over 2. 5 million meals. We address digital and equities by distributing more than 100,000 Laptop Computers to the students whopu needed one while also offering discounted Internet Services for families and free mobile hotspots to students or those that have housing instability as well. District mentalhealth continue to provide services to the students. Our amazing social workers receive more than 34,000 referrals and provided close to 160,000 interventions. Looking forward, a big consideration about how and when we opened schools is the state of the pandemic. Unfortunately continuing to be a hot spot for the spread in this country. As of this week florida has reported more than 480,000 known cases of the highest concentration right here in broward and miamidade counties with a Positivity Rate as at times been as high as 20 . Public Health Experts and Infectious Disease physicians almost universally recommended that children do not go to school until the positive test rate is three to 5 over a rolling twoweek average. Our local positive test rate is still averaging about 10 . As we continue to consult with our local Public Health officials and medical expertshe for guidance, ive been clear about reopening schools and that is we will not compromise the health and safety of our students, teachers and staff. Thats our highest priority, period. Faced with an ongoing pandemic that continues to spread through the community, our only option in the School Year Starts in just a few short days will be to begin with a distancelearning or what we call elearning model for all students. That is the only way we can educate our students and keeping employees healthy and safe. We simply cannot risk exposing our students and the staff until the virus isnt under control. Our commitment is to deliver highquality instruction to our students regardless of which learning model they provide. We understand that it will never be a substitute for facetoface teaching and learning in our classrooms but during this time our students will continue to learn and we will work to make the learning environment personal, engaging, interesting, challenging andd fulfilling. I willun continue to ask the community for help. The only way our district will be able to open a School Building is when weve lowered the number of cases in our communities it will require Wearing Masks, physical distancing and changing our behavior is im also urging and begging the federal government to pass p additional relief package in response to the impact of covid19 and assist with the ongoing recovery is by providing at least 200 billion to Public Schools across this country but serve over 50 million students. This funding is critically needed to help cover the impending substantial shortfall the state and local revenue collection to continue to feed students andto their families across the gaps in Remote Learning to expand Mental Health services, to provide reliable highspeed Internet Access for all students and to purchase the necessary pde material and equipment for enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols so they can make our schools safe for our students, teachers and staff whenrs we open. Our children have so many abilities and talents to develop and countless dreams that are being stifled. We elected them and future generations to meet this pandemic by developing and implementing national and local strategies to get the pandemic under control and provide the necessary fundingde and support pinky when i loothank you and io answering your questions. You are now recognized. Thank you, chairman cleburne, Ranking Member scalise and the rest of you senators of the committee for taking the time to hear us today. The chairman of the talked about the story virtually. Ms. Bird passed away less than two weeks after going into the hospital. I am in second grade teacher and have been teaching for 17 years. This will be my fourth year at this district. We are a very rural small town in eastern arizona. We only have about 300 students, 90 hispanic, 84 free and reduced lunch. Our Students Start School in kindergarten or preschool and state in a single word in the classroom all through their senior year unless they move out of the district. Our school is a community but they are alsol a family and we are all worried about the struggle of returning to school. Our district was hit againin lat week and we have more support staff to test. Seven members of the 60 that is 1 little over 11 . We need to come and together we are worried about what can happen and we are not ready to lose another staff member. I think the emotional impact of the students and them not being in the classroom. I also think that the impactnt f them. She was here for 38 years, she was a colleague, a mentor and a friend. Our students have expressed to me how they were concerned that even i wouldce pass away and tht right there is emotionally damning. If we bring them into the classroom and a teacher passes s away, how is that going toth affect them. I cannot speak for all teachers that i can speak for those in our community and the teachers ive talked to throughout the United States in the last couple ofed weeks. We have been told that children do not contract and transmit the virus, but how do we know that . Weve put them in seclusion, we took them out of the classroom ar march. Theyve been sheltered. To me we are forcing schools to be open and that is going to put those children back into the petri dish in the classroom. Children like to be around each other. We do know that they are not affected ainfected as much and have passed away, but do we need that the statistics were should we thinkld of the humanitarian value of them they go home and give it to their Family Members. Our community when i first tested positive in thest small town i was the only person, trust me. Now in the last six and a half, seven weeks, we are up to 28, so we need to be careful and thinkd think about our community. I can tell you after teaching for seven years, ive seen them pass everything around from pink eye to the stomach flu. So, passing covid19 isnt something we can stop and we all know that. My main concern is if we as adults cannot be in the classroom together we have to cancel work, we are working from home, then why are we forcing children back to the classroom . Boy is their life not as important as adults and i understand that adults contract and have problems, but if we bring kids into the classrooms, these kids yes they are our future. They are going to be there and we need to protect them now. Teachers will be teaching at our district online. We will be teaching facetoface offering whole group and Small Group Instruction on a virtual platform. Schools are making adjustments to addressme further district. Our district is also putting an emphasis on social and emotional learning. Ts, Teachers Want to be in the classrooms but they also need to think of themselves and their families. Our jobs are not just about our students. We also have to worry about our communities and the people we work with in our own families at home. I was looking at the money and if i would like to think our government for what they have given to us. It helps our districts to buy the things we need to get started with students in our classroom but we also have to think about the other stuff. We are going to need more money to help with transportation and eight more money to help with substitute teaching. We will have to have someone in the classroom with them. They cannot just sit in the classroom while thaclassroom whs online. My finishing quote is we can recover a childs lost education, but we cannot recover a life. Thank you again for taking theta time to hear my story. Thank you. Good afternoon members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am a visiting fellow with the foundation for research on equal opportunity by the nonpartisan Research Organization that focuses on the impact of Public Policies and reforms of those with incomes well below thecy u. Median. We heard today communities across the country are facing difficult decisions about how to begin the school year during the pandemic. The concept of any child, teacher or School Employee contracting and facing the possibility of death for serious illness shouldng weigh heavily n all policymakers involved in the decisions affecting schools plans. But its critical that they also recognize theal serious risks associated with prolonged School Closures particularly for disadvantaged children. Researchers studying the effects of the closures learned that it results in months of lost learning if they are most acute for lowincome students. The bottom line is prolonged School Closures will predict a large achievement gap for a generation of american children. Beyond these, prolonged School Closures face significant risks for Childrens Health and welfare. Theres alarming evidence that i describe in my written testimony that prolongs the child welfare. Closures also have significant negative effects. Many parentsts have been forcedo choose between their jobs and their childs care into this challenge is most difficult for single parents. The good news is that its possible this was to reopen. Health experts including the American Academy of pediatrics issued guidance for opening schools with certain precautions such as physical distancing, utilizing outdoor space and designing to be for minimizing and Face Covering for students particularly older students and for teachers and School Personnel. Many School Districts choose to reopen across the country within Person Instruction or hybrid learning options at the beginning of this fall. According to a new analysis from the university of washington researchers, 41 of the districts and 28 of suburban districts provide in Person Instructions this fall. The majority of the largest public School Districts are not reopening within Person Instruction. 71 of the nations largest 120 School Districts are beginning with Remote School learning. Altogether the School Districts serve more than 7 million children including 1. 4 million living in poverty. Its important to recognize the children of lowincome families have fewer resources to learn outside of schools. According to one estimate, which is that families spend more than 9,000 outofpocket on their childrens educational and enrichment outside of school each year while the poorest families spent thousand dollars oror so. Today families with financial means are working to create a bettebetter options than Remote Learning including homeschooling, setting upcr the pandemic micro schools and forming coops hiring teachers were tutors. Children have few options. Policymakers must address this. For example states should use existing funds to provide aid directly to parents in the form of education savings accounts or scholarships to support their children outside of the needs. New hampshire to South Carolina they are already doing this. Other states should follow their lead. As Congress Considers the packages for the education, we should provide aid directly to parents to help disadvantaged children learn when their school neis closed. To provide education relief in this manner, after Hurricane Katrina and rita in 2005, many children were displaced and had nowhere to go to school. Congress provided more than 1 billion to follow and allow them to continue their education. If millions of children are unable to attend school this year, congress should focus much in aow similar manner providing direct assistance to help children continue learning while schools were closed. In my testimony i discuss these and other recommendations help of School Systems can prioritize and address the needs to disadvantaged children during the pandemic. Since 65 congress has focused federal education aidus on promoting equal opportunity for atrisk children. In 2020 this will require focusing aid to support the disadvantaged kids who cannot go to school. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Let me thank all of the witnesses here today for their testimony. And we now will move to a period with questions and answers and i would like now to yield myself five minutes for questions. I am particularly interested in your testimony. You indicated the challenges that the districts have come a lowincome districts. Trying to teach history to those that do not have as much support in their home as some others its pretty significant. I would like to know what would you suggest a lowincome School Districts do in investing the amount of resources and the childrens learning as you have highlighted here o what would yu say the School District ought to do . I think there are several options, mr. Chairman. Thank you for the question. Encouraging the strategies of deploying the Remote Learning technologies and trying to close the Digital Divide. I also think providing aid directly to the families to hire tutors and provides child care would be a compelling way to address the outside of School Learning gap that we have seen since spring. Some of the learning that was provided, there were lots of pandemic dropouts of kids not logging into Remote Learning. I think hearing more resources directly to those of disadvantaged children to make decisions on their behalf and try to take advantage of some of the options. Its not to say schools themselves dont need resources. Some of that should be directly provided to parents. Im concerned about you mentioned Online Learning at the outset which is great. Then we have another problem with masks and other issues. How would you suggest School Districts function . Thank you mr. Chairman. On the first point i absolutely agree what we described earlier in terms of providing remote instruction to disadvantaged children to close the Digital Divide by subsidizing access and hardware with Information Technology to close the gap. And there are great opportunities with information savings account directly to low income families and also to hire a tutor to make sure children dont suffer the learning loss that we should be expecting at this point with prolonged School Closures. So people are gathering together in any circumstance at least it would be a Smaller Group of children, with the ability to adhere to cdc guidelines or was social distancing would be feasible. I now yield to the Ranking Member. I cant hear you. Thank you. I know we heard some of the witnesses testifying last weeks hearing had a lot of talk from the medical experts of the president and the steps the president is taking not only laying out a plan but also how it saved millions of lives in fact. Maybe they should watch a replay of that hearing and they can learn some things themselves that this administration has done including doctor fauci and doctor redfield talking about different steps the president is taking as part of an overall plan to help us find a vaccine which as we have seen is revolutionary in where we are with stage iii testing into major drugs that could be ready to go possibly in a two and showing incredible promise and thats only happening because the president has asked warp speed and to see the way the president has moved all the red tape out of the way to focus all of our resources from the smartest scientist in the world v and what has been a true for approved for treatment of covid19. All the steps that have been taken for Disease Control and other agencies to safely reopen businesses. And of course safely opening schools. Also the American Academy of pediatrics a deal with the health of our children, pediatric doctors laid out guidelines. They didnt say throw the kids back into school and have a petri dish setting like we did before. If you go back to a setting we will see in the next few weeks it will be nothing like theck t four there were all kinds of viruses and kids all across the country maybe we should of been taking better steps like we are now with hygiene and washing hands and other basic things but now we know more than we did a few months ago. We know how to reopen safely and they guidelines are there clearly how to do it. But scotland some School Systems has spent time working to get it done and then a few unfortunately are trying to find reasons not to get it done. As i talked about last week there is nearly 100 billion we have already sent the states that can be used to safely reopen schools. I have not seen a run on the money. Itn still there. Most states, over 70 percent of the money that we sent them in the cares act. People want to talk about hundreds of billions of dollars but if you still have 100 billion to bevail availableo do things like safely reopen schools i would hope they would find a way to get it done for the children and thats what i want to ask you about because we know that homeschooling is very successful part of the educational system but its a small percentage of parents who choose that option. Most want, the in School Setting and many studies show there is no substitute. Thats why we need to put a focus on it. Have you seen in those guidelines it is flexible enough to handle different kind of School System for parts of the country . Absolutely. What we need is flexibility and we need to think creatively about bringing kids back into the classroom. We clearly know in Person Instruction is the best way to educate childrendr. What we saw during the spring with many School Districts not providing oneonone instructio instruction, when schools were remote come a lot of parents reported their children didnt learn very much and not logging inconsistently. Pandemic dropouts d in some cities as many as one fifth of the kids never logged on. Educationally we need them to be in the classroom to benefit from in Person Instruction but also the critical element you discussed about schools being on the front line of the child arlfare system there is alarming reports of under accounts of child abuse that we are concerned those incidents are happening and not being reported and alarming increase to the National Sexual abuse hotline. We need kids back in school so its safe educationally and also for childrensfo welfare. I i yield back. The chair recognizes ms. Waters for five minutes. I am very pleased you are mholding this hearing whether or not we can educate our kids so many who dont have children in school and for those that are insisting we open the schools and to disregard all that we have learned about what should and should not be done with this pandemic. And some are saying that they know we will lose some kids or a certain percentage but what willing are you willing to lose . Im not willing to lose one kid if we dont have to. Its very important for us from what i can understand they are saying they dont want the kids back in the classroom because we cannot guarantee their safety thank you for being here. Have you heard about the percentage of parents who have said they dont want the kids back in the classroom . They dont believe we have the Safety Measures necessary . If so what percentage of parent parents . That varies within each community. Parents are very concerned we see that and urban districts and rural districts and what frustrates me the most what we needed to do as a country in marc march, april, may, june, july, t , if we invested in schools to give them the equipment that has been talked about to make them more viable with a lack of action and investment has heightened that concerned. Absolutely. I understand some of the schools certainly are not bringing kids back but opting foren tutors in im not being facetious when i ask this but i understand the son of the secretary of the United States would be attending a school that will not be opening up and maybe they will openk by october. Natalie that is correct but this pandemic doesnt know Political Party or poverty or urban versus rural or suburbanve and it doesnt discriminate. And for all of our o children that parents and grandparents, teachers like angela and her colleagues, we have to do the right thing. Our kids have lost too much i want mandatory Summer School starting in july to get kids caught up that we didnt have this plan in place as adults with leadership from the top and did not do what we needed to do. We need to close that digitaliv divide. So to be at home five days a week doesnt make any sense they can learn anything they anytime anywhere. So in the Greater Los Angeles area, lausd and with dysfunctional families and said 350 million from the state of california to have thes technologies we should not allow them to be dropped off. So should we pay special attention to those who cannot afford computers and broadband to participate . And what this pandemic has done in the murder of george floyd hass done with a massive longstanding systemic equities on inequities and you cannot hide from that so every child has access like water and electricity to make sure they have access anytime anywhere we have to do that. We have to do it now. Also. My time is up but i like what youre talking about with tutoring i will talk with you about that more. I wish we had more time. Thank you very much. Thank you. The chair now recognizes our guest for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman just a followup from last weeks hearing, and that hearing i had a long discussion with regards to the incorrect coding of individual death there is an overstatement of death due to corona which is the followup of the previous question in as previous hearing and we found out two more states are actually looking into this as well now. I sent a letter requesting information from the doctor and the admiral with regards to what we are doing about it. Just to give you a heads up. The doctor said last week and want to reemphasize as director of cdc leading Public Health agency in the world its in the Public Health interest to get the students back open with facetoface learning we have to be honest we want to get a quality education with facetoface learning i assume you agree with that statement . I do. Certainly that should be the goal doing everything we can to get children back into school in a safea manner and flexibility to parents and teachers and School Personnel to create the best circumstance for local communities but the goal should be to get kids back in school the prolonged School Closures are devastating for children, particularly low income that we know are falling further behind every day schools remain closedrtrt. We have seen Public Health guidance from the academy of pediatrics, cdc with best practices that can be used to reopen schools wherever s possible it should think creatively of following those guidelines to bring kids back into the classroom. There is a paper put out by the cdc extensively with eight pages dealing with comparing covid to the flu and harmful learning aspects if we dont go back to school how they fall backwards and then so that social and Emotional Development and nutrition, physical activity are all important things we need to consider when you take a look at why the professionals have all said we school. Go back to so in may 2009, the outbreak between april and october the School Superintendents and principals said i urge you to take your cues from Public Health officials in your area, state and cdc. But this time around it seems different and this to deal with all the issues and then tweeted while asking 15000 School District 100,000 schools to figure this out byel themselves. So why are they relying but not now . There hasnt been a plan or investment and now we have 1000 people dying per day. Let me stop you right there. This is a brandnew disease and we didnt know anything about it i as of january 1st. Now the last several months we continue to develop plans and strategies as new evidence comes out Ranking Member scalise had a stack of papers 18 inches tall of different plans in place. So there are plans to be flexible as we continue to improve and this is an ongoing thing and at schools open up and i would anticipate the same thing happening here. And then come back up so i yield back. The chair recognizes for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. Can you hear me . I can hear you. The evidence shows spreading to adults and teachers andnd cafeteria workers and parents and grandparents. The cdc released a report about coronavirus outbreak add a georgia summer camp. Three quarters tested positive. Children underil ten got the virus at a higher rate than older kids and adults. This isnt just an isolated incident. American association of pediatrics reports rat 338,000 children have tested positive for coronavirus. You coauthored an article one former education secretary one former head of cdc that outlines eight basic steps to out open schools despite precautions there was inevitably coronavirus cases at schools. Thank you for joining us once again why are you so sure there will bee additional coronavirus cases if we fully reopen all schools . There is nothing partisan about this. Its all bipartisan we care about the safety of our children and education. Im pleased toto do that whos done a lot of important work together. Our schools reflect our communities and we have seen across the country as schools try to reopen and in some cases coronavirus literally on the first day. So the best thing we can do to keep children and teachers and parents safe is to keep down the cases in our community there is nothing in it for them not to open schools they can afford it to do it because its not safe the community has not done the right thing after the past four or five months. And then to invest in our community. We chose to open bars rather than start school on time. We will continue to have cases and then we have to do all the things to test do Contact Tracing and isolate and then to shut everything back down we should open very slowly and very carefully with the goal not to be open but stay open. And we know you are absolutely right. One Indiana Junior High School had a case just a few hours into the very first school day. It used emergency protocols to order some students to quarantine on day number one. Also all contacts of new cases must be traced and quarantined. If the government does not provide support can we really expect schools to stay open . If we cant Contact Trace or quarantine we cannot open schools. And dad is a recipe so for us to stay open that is a prerequisite we have to Contact Trace. And the explanation and we want to talk to about but we have seen another countries some countries have done very well but others have experienced outbreaks and what factors to sustain to reopen United Statese to safely open and sustain it in Public Schools . The factor of the mitigation and measure and to have difficulty to reopen safely. So it becomes difficult to control but you have moderate levels for social distancing hand hygiene. The chair now recognizes mr. Green for five minutes. Chairman . Are you talking to me . Can you hear me okay now . You are recognized for five minutes. Chairman and Ranking Member the handling of positive tests and from some estimates the federal government has been reimbursing Healthcare Providers between 5,039,000 depending on the severity of the case so they get the 20 percent add on paymentnt for covid patience over non Covid Patients there is a financial incentive to say covid cases a democratic governor colorado retroactively low lower their count by 12 percentt after a Motor Vehicle trauma and covid thath listed is just 10 percent that is 15000 cases giving the extra 20 percent were its not warranted but also affix the cinumber on which important decisions are made. Like to take the opportunity for the chairman to request to conduct an audit of every single covid death and reimbursement and how the amounts are determined and waste fraud and abuse. This to be extremely helpful to congress and how we can protect taxpayer dollars. Now onto the topic ascending kids back to schools. In the cdc says the best Available Evidence indicates children become infected they are far less likely to suffer severe symptoms but the cdc advised no other setting has more influence in the Childs Health and wellbeing than their school. Less than 7 percent of us cases are 1 percent of desk and doctor redfield said 7. 1 million children get nutritional Behavioral Health nacounseling suicides are on the the child abuse is on rise typically they are the first to report it to say this is in Public Health versus the economy but the Public Health decision. Lets open the schools. To routinely be aware of those decisions medication was significant or deadly side effects because the chance of a good outcome outweighs the chance of a bad motrin causes gastricce ulcers from the cdc with a risk to nutritional health. Loss of Mental Health decounseling. And with far greater harm to the children from covid19 is not even close. With additional 50000 suicides. That may or may not. And that ratio i completely agree. And it is undeniable and on debatable. We will do far more harm to children than we everdo would then letting them return to the classroom was social distancing. All of these are tragedies than other words to save one life if we follow that logic we will never allow a single child to ride in an automobile last year 4074 children i am of you lacks if my math skills serve me well thats ten times more than covid do we stop all children from riding in cars . Know. As a physician i firmly believe the right decision the risk is right there. Do they give the federal government the right to tell tennessee this whole discussion of overreach they are competent enough to make this decision on their own i yield back. And to answer to the record with cases of covid contacted or transmitted with fourthgraders and their teachers and that Vice President visited without wearing a l mask just last week. Heres the documents for the record. As although parents and teachers and students would like to return many are not in a place to read open schools for in Person Learning. Its important to remember that just because it wasth true that doesnt mean science says it will bece true. It wasnt there a magic device were there is a high number of communities with those levels that we seeei today. With the National Academy of ouience report that you coauthored schools need to implement a long list of ngtigation strategies and with those cohorts with temperature and symptom screening. Can you pick and choose which ones a comply with and still safely open . Particularly with high levels of virus in the community and then to scale back the mitigation measure. Arehe there examples that open schools and kept them open from elsewhere in the United States . So i dont have any examples of schools reopening. There had been a number that have reopened where it has not gone well israel for example schools were reopened and then they had to close down again and thats the cautionary tale for what will happen if the virus is circulating. Secretary what enforceable policies can be put into place so employees can follow the guidelines about maintaining social distancing . And in particular how do you enforce these guidelines and how do you respond when violations are detected . Its good to see you again congressman. Obviously this is critical that has to happen its a hard thing for kids not to play tag but we have new norms as masks are mandatory and shields around desks and with the complexityle of this how do we keep bathrooms clean or how we think about transportation . And what we have to relyto on. And the students dont do it teachers dont do it on for those ago on airlines and we would have to do those types of things. What the parents and grandparents at home. And last that they heard from over 20 percent of the test we see nationwide w take more than three days to get results. And that its not good enough. So professional sports teams or those visiting the white house so with that level of testing will that be available in most School Districts. And how test results are 48 hours and then in 2448 hours. And then to break the transmission if we dont have those capabilities in place and then to have a lot more difficulty to regain control. I met of time. And i yield back. Thank you very much. In the situation of the miserable failure of the administration for the National Strategy but then with all of these other euphemisms done dont have a straight one the strategy all of the dads and moms and students want to Learn Together the in Person Instruction is going on than online instruction is not the question but dont nobody knows if it is safe today. And with those conditions of chaos. And to lead the world in the death count. Contracted and in many parts of the country but nothingdm but confusion and miracle cures so given the refusal to create and not with ourze distinguished colleague with the local decisionmaking bureau who was trying to dictate all over the country and with online or and i one or a mixed version so federalism is on the side of the majority as a threat to meet people of the will of the president. 210 of your teachers and contractors in Broward County cant greatly what does that do to the entire school environment. We require everyone to selfreport and then isolate theo individuals and to go under quarantine and to test and that is monitored 12 particular classroom and if we see other cases to shut down the entire school and then it is enormously disruptive situation. This is a climate of fear that makes it difficult with a reasonable learning environment in the climate thats created when you have that. We are very sorry about the loss of your colleague and your friends of covid19 and what is the impact of this tragic loss than the rest of the school body and teachers thinking about what to do with respect in the fall . [inaudible] can you hear me okay . I cannot hear any of you. I have a friend who is Live Streaming and im using her cell phone. But i can tell you the parents have expressed the students are feeling a lot of stress yesterday that was shared on social media and reading the heartfelt put on one poem. And with the loss of the teacher it will come to admire. And to go to the loss of seven you arelo close to because he come from this community and stay in the community and dedicate ourselves. [inaudible] your time is expired. I would like to submit from the national the Education Association of 3 million members to the committee. Without objection you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you for joining us here h today. As a father t of two boys and we want to do everything right to make sure we are taking care of them and coming from our government but there is no misrepresentation or other assessments so i continue with the American Academy have peachy on pediatrics because just yesterday called the American Academy of pediatrics and talk to them. And what i heard from them is a frustration on their part to have the Trump Administration misrepresent their position they have spoken publicly so to make sure we have a discussion and to have an education to keep them safe i do believe there is a Common Ground approach both republicans and democrats both believe in Person Education if we could achieve that. So do believe that medical and science expertise should play a key role in the state and local community should make these decisions and you are set to rock n roll. And at what hurt the election. And the entire community is working day and night seven days an da week how we can open schools and at least do a hybrid some days online to execute cdc guidelines. Of whats going on in the community. The buildings that may be closed we spent the entire summer training our teachers that the Online Learning is substantially different. And then we also created two different schedules so there is a morning session and afternoon and eveningng session that we are creating an that there is actually an educator. And the thoughtfulness and none of them are looking at this. And with that is flat out wrong. T and then to build that Common Ground approach. Or and at this point in time to the Ranking Member i have been volunteered to close for the chairman. Absolutely. So the title of the hearing was challenges to safely open k12. We admit the problems that we see there are concerns. But the scientist and pediatricians that we rely on for the Scientific Data to do this safely are ally recommending doctor fauci and doctor redfield, cdc, American Academy of pediatrician on pediatricians all have guidelines how to do this safely. No doubt there are some health risks. And with regard to the common flu so in our state of missouri we lost for people more to the flu than covid so we need some perspective to understand the risks involved. And the points made a couple of different times its up to the local officials to make those decisions based on the science and the involvement with the medical Community Without covid is progressing in your Community Needs to be paramount. It doesnt meandr no risk. Science has shown to being exposed to learning issues. So the system that we have in place if we do Virtual Learning that is fine but we have heard over and over again the American Academy of pediatricians and the Teachers Union this and that experiment makes it clear of the pandemic and then this spring it was an adequate for students so as a substitute it is not a longrange strategy. And then to get control in the classroom and other countries include austria and denmark and the netherlands norway and singapore and with those protocols in place to help and then one of the things we dont discuss very much as the safety factor for kids. And with the suicide problems and the child abuse problems with the 50 percent drop to be abused but yet theres a lot of things to consider challenges is not something we can overcome and not something we dont have a plan for to be flexible enough and the process and procedures thank you for the opportunity and thank you for further testimony. I yield back. Before i make my closing statement so the Public Health experts are recommending but the truth is to reopen schools is risky where the coronavirus is spreading at a high rate. Doctor redfield with remote and distancelearning for some amount of time. With active community not to create and asking people to distance learn to get this epidemic under control. And then to reopen schools and the hotspots is extraordinarily risky. N the schools. I will say it again. We all want schools to open and we want the studentsnd to thriv. But it cannot come at the cost ofol lives. It forces harm that is not to be taken lightly. But there are ways to at least possibly mitigate these harms. There is no way to bring the appearance, teacher or child back to life once theyve died from this virus, particularly interested in the comments about the state of tennessee. Hes pleaded for us to listen to the people of tennessee. We are. Thats what everybody has been saying here today. But whatti we hear is that irrespective of what may be going on in your state isnt normally up to schools or cut off funds. Hes repeated the word flexibility several times. That flexibility seems to me its got to be there for the School Districts. The widespread in this community daday off not have their funding cut off in order to have Online Learning. And it seems strange that no one has talked here today about speed [inaudible] where there is an outbreak and talk about cleaning things up. If it gets three or four children it seems to me we need to repair the system, not take the funds away. So let me just say that i recognized this and ive been in the classrooms during the flu outbreak, and i also know how high risk hotspots can be so this is why we must provide School Districts with clear sciencebased guidance without the risks of physicallyal reopening schools. Second, we must take affirmative steps to control the spread of the virus in the community. This is going to require sacrifice and require everyone to wear a mask. We need strong federal leadership and a plan to guide these choices. Finally to cut off federal funds we must provide School Districts the funding and assistance they need to educate children safely. To re begin remotely or in person, significant resources will be required to be flexible. Weve heard today about the struggle and the challenges faced in children in the hardhit communities struggling with this pandemic. They do not benefit however from sending their children into