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

Workplaces. They dont just have kids in them. Authorized tos declare a recess of the committee at any time. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. On july 11, President Trump think it wouldms be bad for them politically if schools open before the november election. It is important for children and family. Threat, may cut off funding if not open. Isterday he said my view schools should open. This thing is going away. Things go away like away and my view is schools should be open. The decision about how to reopen schools as a political dispute about his own reelection, and to paraphrase his press secretary, he is refusing to let science stand in the way. I fundamentally disagree with that approach. Schools must reopen based on science and the safety of our children and teachers, not politics and wishful thinking. I do agree with the president that schools are critically important for children and their families. My first job after i graduated from college was at the high score does high school. High school. My wife was a school librarian. Of year thehis time anticipation of school would come into focus. Two of my grandchildren are of school age and they are feeling that anticipation now. In may, the select subcommittee focused on how to open safely by testing, tracing. I hoped the administration would implement these measures and the schools could safely reopen in the fall fully in person. Unfortunately, this is not possible in much of the country. Fauci told usr. The virus is still raging across the United States because unlike europe, we did not shut down officially in the first place. We cannot make the same mistake with our schools. We need to follow the science. Can get theren coronavirus and they can pass it on to others. The president s claim that the are almost immune to this disease. Fauci told our subcommittee , weldren do get infected know that, so therefore they are not immune. Outbreaks at summer camps, the cdc said that sickness of children tested at a ymca camp in georgia had the virus. Summer camp outbreaks have been documented in florida, new york, texas, South Carolina, louisiana, and other states. Than 338,000ore children have tested positive for the virus. Clear, the cdc has been that a key consideration for physically reopening schools is coronavirus rates in the and that in person chool presents the high risk of spreading the disease. Director Robert Redfield has warned the virus hotspots and im quoting him now remote and Distance Learning may for some time. The Coronavirus Task force repeated last week that 21 states are in socalled red zones because they have high Positivity Rates, or rising infections. Reopening schools in these hotspots presents heightened risks. School is outside of a red zone, cdc scientists and others have urged that any school considering reopening should take steps to limit transmission. Improving School Ventilation systems, physically distancing, and Wearing Masks. Our schools face life or death decisions because of the administrations inexcusable favor to get the virus under control for the last six months. Steps the federal government can take to help schools safely reopen in person and stay open. Redfield tolddr. Us last week, we cant control control the can pandemic by Wearing Masks, limiting gatherings, closing restaurants and bars, and practicing social distancing. The president needs to follow and promote this expert device, not denigrate and distract from it. To withholdeats funding from schools, we should assure every school the resources it needs to get students during the pandemic, whether in person or remote. The next Coronavirus Relief package must provide sufficient funding to meet these needs. It must also include the funds in the heroes act to provide mobile hotspot and other connectivity devices to students and subsidies to make the internet affordable for low income families. Colleaguesepublican to support these investments in our children. Eyewitnesses who speak from deep expertise and experience in education and Public Health, i also invited secretary devos to sicard testified today so she could explain why she is pressuring schools to fully reopen despite the risks. I offered to accommodate her schedule, but she refused to appear. Ournd it hard to understand secretary devos how secretary devos can expect to lead our nations effort to safely get our children to the schools during the pandemic if she refuses to speak directly to congress and the American People. Friend forowledge my his open ended remarks. Chairman, andmr. I appreciate you calling this hearing. I do want to mention, the president s spokesperson, to finish the quote that was started the science is on our side here. We encourage localities and states to simply follow the science. Open our schools. That was the president s spokesperson. Last week, our top health toicial urged the importance safely reopen our schools for facetoface learning for educational health, for Mental Health, for physical health, and yes, for the Public Health of our children. Hadredfield, the cdc testified under oath it is important to realize it is in the Public Healths best interest for k to 12 students to get back to facetoface learning. There is significant Public Health consequences of the school closure. I do think it is really important to realize it is not Public Health versus the economy about School Reopening. Harmsdance further adds onributed to closed School Behavioral health, economic wellbeing, and academic achievement of children in the short and longterm are wellknown and significant. Home, nom a childs other setting has more influence on health and wellbeing then a school or co a school. Schoolsi said reopening is good for the mental welfare of children. Secretaryions general called the situation around the abe with School Closings generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential. The overwhelming consensus among the Public Health community is that for the health and development of more than 50 million american children, it is critical to safely reopen schools for in Person Learning. Lets get more specific. The federal child abuse treatment and prevention act requires schools to have staff tos requiring report instances of child abuse and neglect. This came up at last weeks hearing as well. We have seen child abuse drop by more than 40 compared to the same levels in 2019. That does not mean that child abuse has stopped or decreased by 40 , it just means it is not being discovered because our teachers were doing a great job of doing that. Our children are home with those very parents who are abusing them and it is not getting noticed. Imagine the damage to tens of millions of children because of that. Evidence from hospitals suggests that child abuse has increased during the pandemic. Teachers cant report what they result,e, and as a thousands of children are being abused in america today. We cannot sit by and make excuses. We need to follow the safely guidelines safety guidelines for those children who expect us to do our job. , theyont need excuses need us to look at the challenges and recognize how to overcome them. There are roadmaps everywhere from cdc to the American Academy of pediatrics to other organizations. We areield added, seeing sadly greater suicide then deaths from covid. We are seeing far greater drug overdoses that are far in excess than the deaths we are seeing from covid. Charts and to seeing mourned about covid, but why dont we talk about the other deaths because people are shutting in and staying home . We cannot act like we are living in a vacuum, living in silos. When kids are not in schools, there are devastating things happening to them. We want to make sure we have a safe environment, but we cannot use that as an excuse. We have to do it. We cannot talk about how hard it is to do. A lot of people do hard work every day. People are going to hospitals working on the frontline, Grocery Stores working on the frontline. None of that is easy, but they know everyone else is relying on them. The best Available Evidence indicates that covid19 poses relatively low risk to stool aged children schoolaged children. They appear at the risk of contracted contracting covid19 than adults. Less than 1 of covid19 related deaths. If we focus on the wellbeing of our children, the question really is not should we reopen, it is why have we not started planning more widespread to reopen safely . All schools can be doing this. We have seen schools do it in hotspots. Now we see schools not in hotspots figuring out how to not reopen. We need to share that learning experience with everybody. The coronavirus continues to pose a serious threat. Dr. Redfield and dr. Fauci gave us five things every american should do and testified it would have a dramatic impact on spreading the virus. Wearing a mask, social distancing, hand hygiene, being smart about gatherings, and staying out of bars and crowded areas, if we have done those things we have done the modeling data. We get the same bang for the buck as if we shut the whole economy down. We should do all those five things and encourage schools to safely reopen. Schools present unique challenges but the good thing as each one can be responsibly addressed. We are not talking about a onesizefitsall model. Hotspots move around. Each one can be responsibly addressed. The main concerns we hear are from teachers. Children may not be at great risk of getting sick, but they can spread the virus. Teachers with high risk factors like any other person with a high risk factor who goes to work, knows that there are factors you can address. A smart School Reopening will ensure that the spread of covid risk and mitigated. Assigned Virtual Learning environments or other learning tasks. Teachers are not just six feet away from the many nearest student, in many cases they are 10 feet away, and they are all Wearing Masks. The cdc has issued guidelines. Parents can take their own safety and their childs safety into their hands. They can take a temperature. If a child or Family Member exhibits any symptoms, the child should stayathome. The cdc and American Academy of pediatrics have laid out guidelines were safely reopening schools. Those guidelines should be followed by everybody. Students, faculty, and staff should wear masks and have easy access to hand sanitizing stations. We put over 150 million out for our states, a lot of which is available and can be used by our schools today. They do not have to wait for congress to pass a new bill. Billion almost 100 available to our schools and those who need them. Temperature checks and physical distancing are all mentioned, six feet or more for desks, students in Smaller Groups, improve ventilation by opening windows. Aty schools are looking conducting classes outdoors where it is possible, increased wipe downs of chairs and desks. If someone gets sick, and we know it will happen, follow the guidelines. No School System should be just today wondering what to do in those situations. This should have been planned weeks ago and if not, start planning today. School systems are opening up next week. In my state of louisiana, they are opening next week and have shared these guidelines. Washington, d. C. Announced their schools will not be open in the fall. Not one child under the age of 18 has died from covid in the district of columbia and yet they are shutting down schools. If d. C. Followed the guidelines we listed, and considering the devastating damage to these children, how can you justify the harm you are doing to tens of thousands of children in the city by shutting down in Person Learning . Those children will suffer and we all know it. The data and science are there, and the reports about what damage is being done to kids if schools do not reopen. Education is a local responsibility and each school must adapt to their own challenges. The cdc makes clear that a school and a hotspot needs to be e careful than a school and thees are too high ability to dramatically lower risks too easily obtainable for us to be having an actual debate about whether or not it can be done. Of course it can be done and is being done in hotspots and in places where it is not a hotspot , and is not being done in places where it is not a hotspot. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing, thank you for our witnesses. Teachers face an unprecedented challenge. In spring, they had to deal with schools shutting down early. We saw new guidelines and up to theke myselfeverybody had plate and has had to answer the called of this new challenge we are facing. I want to thank the teachers and parents who homeschooled for what they are preparing to do to help educate over 50 million children, who are counting on us. I want to extend a thank you for all of us who have helped us get schools reopen and to help our kids have that opportunity to achieve the American Dream that we owe to them to give them that same opportunity. I yield back. Want torman i introduce our witnesses. I am honored to have the former secretary of education arne duncan with us today. Secretary duncan led the department of education from 2009 through 2015. Prior to his service under president obama, secretary duncan led Public Schools for eight years. Since leaving government, he has returned to chicago, where he works to help improve opportunities for young people. We are joined by dr. Caitlin rivers, a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for health an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Is an epidemiologist, specializing in infection Infectious Diseases and a recent panelist on reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic. Join byrace to be robert muncy a Broward County Public Schools in florida. To myd like to yield colleague and friend Debra Wasserman schultz. She will give a brief introduction. Kleiman thank you. Thank you for allowing me to introduce an esteemed witness, superintendent robert ramsey. Him. Proud to represent we entrust the safety and education of nearly 200 70,000 students and 175,000 learning andts met schools, centers charter schools. Students have improved graduation rates, College Acceptances and Career Readiness and has extended technical programs that establish. Xpanded i graduated from a Broward County school. During the pandemic, the superintendent has worked with the school board, teachers, staff and students to make sure everyone remain safe and that their education is not compromised. This is no easy task. Each one browbeating schools to open. Yesterday, total cases in our state out 500,000. Records were set. People are dying, hospitals are wrecked. Staging antendent is prudent model pathway and keeping teachers and staff and students safe. I am thrilled to introduce him to you so you can see why he is the private he is the pride of Broward County. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you. Introduce pleased to from arizona. Teaches second grade in the Unified School District and arizona. The cdc School Guideline and her teamms. Contacted contracted the coronavirus while teaching summer school. She and two of her colleagues recovered, but of third passed away. Ms. Byrd had been a Public School teacher for 38 years. She was a wife, a mother, a and i know her passing has been devastating to her family, her students in her community. I am truly sorry for the loss of your friend and colleague. I appreciate your willingness to speak with us today and share your experiences. Joined by dane director of Cyber National security at the Lincoln Network and a visiting fellow at the foundation of research on equal opportunity. So wesses will be can swear them in. Raise your right hands. Do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give is based in truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I duke harry i do. I do. I do. What i do. Let the witnesses show that they stated in the affirmative. Your written statements will be made apart of the record. Recognized for your testimony. You for providing testimony today. We are confronting not one or two, but several crises at once. The first is the pandemic itself. Which began as a national the second is the abject failure from leadership, federal government which inflamed the Natural Disaster into a manmade catastrophe that is led to the worst economic crisis since the great depression. At the same time, we are also facing a muchneeded reckoning for americas long history of has the racism, which most damaging effects in our nations schools. Today, the multiple crises have all come to a head at once and riskingthe americans pain a hies prize our children. The question is how can schools reopen in the midst of a pandemic . We all want our children to go back to school in person, everyone is united in that. Parents, students, and teachers. All of us. But we can only allow that once it is safe, and everyone is looking to our federal government to show leadership absence of ain the clear plan, superintendents are being left to navigate these decisions on their own. As a nation, we are asking them to solve problems. We are asking them to make potentially lifeanddeath Public Health decisions. We are asking 15,000 School Districts to become 15,000 Health Care Centers without any real resources or expertise. To sanitizeg them and secure physical infrastructure, redesign food systems, rethink transportation systems, and reengineer Mental Health systems that are already strapped. Either way, we are also asking teachers who may be at high risk to go to School Every Day where they might catch covid19 and bring it home to their families. And we are asking all of them to do all of these things under the threat of a president and a federal government that is saying reopen, or else . Telling schools to between telling schools to in line schools are portable community. Even if we do miraculously managed to secure schools, the truth is, if we dont keep the rest of our communities healthy and safe, we will all remain at risk. The bottom line is this, if we really want our kids to go back to school safely, the single most important thing we can do has nothing to do with education at all. And that is, defeat the virus. To me isascinating this is an unforced error. We are about this is about federal leaderships failure. We had done what was necessary in the spring Wearing Masks, socially distancing, testing and scaled, contact tracing, we could have been able to recoup that loss of earning time. If we had valued our students would beers more, we sitting here today with a far better chance of more districts safely reopening. If congress had appropriately if congress had appropriated a significant funding back in the spring, communities could have deployed those resources to address the glaring equity gaps that covid19 has both exposed and unfortunately exacerbated. Manmade catastrophes are absolutely tragic. But they can also be repaired and the time to start is now. So here is where we ought to begin. First, Congress Needs to immediately deploy funds where they are needed most. That should include 200 billion in funds to states and districts, which for be targeted to low income schools. The money should be targeted to children most vulnerable, who will be sprinting homelessness, students with disabilities any english language learners and has been done in previous Disaster Relief bills. Money should be targeted to a National Tutoring initiative. We have millions of college students, recent graduates and retired individuals who can serve as a nationwide resource to provide intensive tutoring for students who need to regain covid. Arning time to the federal government to spur this idea into action in partnership from the private sector leaders. 50 billion in child care funds should be included so this essential system can continue to serve our community, including our teachers and school staff. In rate funding to close the Digital Divide that exacerbates the inequities and Educational Opportunities between thes and have nots. That is what we should be doing. This is what we should not be doing. We should not be delaying the start of the school year. Our children have lost far too much valuable learning time already. Schools need to began. But how school starts, whether they are in person, remote, or some hybrid model, that will have to vary from place to place. Importantly, our goal cant just be opening schools. Them because if we opening them up to only close to my short time later, that will create more instability, more chaos any more confusion. We dont need any of that. Students, parents, teachers must out they all need and deserve stability. We should be focused on starting school in whatever way is safe and responsible with a clear goal of bringing more students back over time. Back toe could go earlier this year and change the way this pandemic was managed from the start. While we cannot, what we can do is at now so we dont keep making matters worse. What we can do is something that has not been done yet by this administration. And that is put our students, our children front and center and how we make decisions. Dont they deserve that . Dont the American People deserve that . Thank you again, chairman clyburn. I appreciate the opportunity. I look forward to taking your questions. Thank you to mr. Duncan. We will now turn to dr. Rivers. Rivers thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about safely reopening schools. We have been looking ahead to reopening since they first closed. Multiple essential roles in our community. The educate our children, provide basic health care, access to mental services, meals, and they provide child care for working parents. Schools are the flywheel of our society. But we are not here because anyone disputes the value of school. School should not close in march because they they closed because of the pandemic. They closed because we care a great deal about protecting children and teachers and families at home, ensuring their health and safety is a top priority. We know more about the virus and we did in march. We know children are much less likely to experience severe illness in adults, and there infections are so mild they are not detected. Nationwide, less than 10 are recognized coronavirus cases are in children. We know there are many more infections not detected, that we only see the tip of the iceberg. Children are much less likely to die than adults, less than 1 of core of his death in kids would less than 1 is not the same as 0 . 488 people between the ages of zero and 24 have died of covid19 as of july 29 according to cdc. Goals are not attended only by children. They are workplaces for staff and teachers who may be at high risk. Children return home to Family Members. Many maybe older adults or have Underlying Health conditions. Of the many gaps, it is becoming clear it is possible for children to spread the virus. Multiple outbreaks have been described. Recently, a report of an outbreak at a camp in georgia found that half of campers were infected. The camp had to close a few days after opening. There are still some open questions about whether children are as infectious as adults were less likely to spread . The risk underscores the importance of mitigation measures to slow the virus spread. We know more than we did in march. Hygiene,on to hand universal masking ventilation and air circulation are important for reducing the risk. Limiting the number of contacts any person has, which may mean hybrid approaches. All, the most important factor whether determining whether schools can reopen as the prevalence is the disease in the community. Communities with a lot of virus circulating will have a tougher time reopening safely. Factors come together, the importance of schools, the risk of the virus to children, mitigation measures, this is probably the most complex decision we are facing in this pandemic. We all one in Person Learning, but when and how we can make that happen and how we can do it as safely as possible is the question at hand. The final word on these decisions should be left to communities carried how communities weigh the risks and benefits to supported Person Learning will vary from place to place. The decisionmaking process should include a coalition of families, health officials, and other community stakeholders. Communities cannot assign alone and they cannot implement alone. School leaders and families are not experts. In clear guidance and support from a Public Health authorities at all levels. Documents on score reopening distinguishes substantial spread and encourage full closures. Additional guidance on what thresholds might differentiate between substantial control and substantial uncontrolled would help communities assess their local condition. Districts need supplemental funding to implement the mitigation measures to slow the spread. Technologiest the and services needed to deliver Remote Learning. Able all, they need to be to make decisions appropriate to prevalence disease and capacity to implement mitigation levels. Although we have learned a lot about the virus in the last few months, there are many questions unanswered. Cdc and nih are put in place now the Necessary Research studies to collect data on our most pressing question, which can include the degree to which asymptomatic children are infected with mitigation measures, how Remote Learning can be effective, and how best to approach these decisions. The more we can learn about this virus, the better informed decisions will be, and we can be sure there will be more difficult decisions ahead between now and we find a vaccine that is acceptable. Thank you. Thank you. Gillens, you are now recognized. [inaudible] im sorry. Thank you, chairman clybourn. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today in special thank you to congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz for her leadership and relentless support and advocacy for children bearing in less than two weeks, Broward County Public Schools to start a new school year. The first day of school is great anticipation and excitement as the employees will welcome back almost 270,000 of our precious children into our classrooms. Providing valuable learning opportunities for our kids, offering engaging experiences, that is what we live for. The coronavirus pandemic has changed all of that. It is a normally disappointing not to be in a position to open our school safely. Announced thee closing of our School Campuses due to the pandemic. Within a few short days of our theols closing, we became lifeline for many in our communities. We continue to distribute food from our local sites and has served over 2. 5 million meals to students and families. We address digital inequities by distribute more than 100,000 Laptop Computers to students who needed one. While also offering discounted, Internet Services for families and free mobile hotspots to students. Staffct Mental Health continue to provide services to our students. Our Amazing School social workers received more than 34,000 referrals and provided close to 160,000 interventions. Looking foward, big consideration about how and when to open schools is the state of the pandemic. Unfortunately, south florida continues to be a hotspot for Coronavirus Spread in this country. As of this gay, florida has reported more than 480,000 known cases of coronavirus with the highest concentration right here in broward and miamidade counties, with the Positivity Rate as high as 20 at times. Public health perverts Public Health experts universally recommend that children not go to school until the positive test rate is 3 to 5 over a rolling two week average. Is local positive test rate still averaging above 10 . As we continue to consult with our local Public Health officials and medical experts for guidance. I have been clear about reopening schools. We will not compromise the health and safety of our students, teachers, and staff. That is our highest priority. They split an ongoing pandemic that continues to spread, our will be to begin with a Distance Learning model for all students. That is the only way we can educate our students while still keeping them, their teachers, and all employees healthy and safe. We simply cannot risk exposing students and staff until the virus is under control. Is to deliver highquality instruction to our students, regardless of which learning model we provide. We understand that elearning will never be the 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, and fulfilling. I will continue to ask our community for help. The only way our district will be able to open our School Building is when we have lowered and number of coronavirus cases. It will require each and everyone of us to contain Community Spread of covid19 by Wearing Masks, by physical distancing and changing our behaviors. I am also urging and begging our federal government to pass additional Coronavirus Relief packages that responds to the impact of covid19 and assist with the ongoing recoveries by providing at least 200 billion the Public Schools across this country that serve over 50 million students. This funding is critically needed to help cover the impending, substantial shortfall in state and local revenue collections. To continue to feed students and their families, to close gaps in Remote Learning, to expand Mental Health services, to provide reliable highspeed Internet Access for all students, and to purchase the necessary ppe material and equipment for enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols, so we can make our school say for our students, teachers, and staff when we open. Our children have so many abilities and talents to develop a make countless dreams that are being stifled by covid19. We all we owe to them in future generations to meet this pandemic had on my developing and implementing national and local strategies to get this pandemic under control. And to provide the necessary funding and support so we can fully open schools and safely provide them with the opportunity to thrive. They deserve nothing less. Thank you and i look forward to answering your questions. Chariman clyburn thank you, mr. Runcie. Ms. Guinness, you are now recognized. Ms. Guinness thank you, chariman clyburn. You for taking time to hear us today. Chairman clybourn already talked doing summer school. One of our colleagues passed away after going into the hospital. Im a second grade teacher. Thisll be my 14th year at this district. Towne a very rural small in eastern arizona. Students, 90 300 hispanic, 84 on free or reduced lunch. Our Students Start School in kindergarten and they stay in classroom,hort, same all through senior year unless they move. Community, buta we are a family and we are all worried about return we are all worried about returning to school. Our district we have four more support Staff Members contract the virus. Seven Staff Members out of the 60 members of our district staff. A is a little over 11 . We are worried about each other and about what can happen. We are not ready to lose another staff member. I think about the emotional part of student not being in the classroom and the impact losing this teacher. She was here for 38 years and was my sons teacher and a dear coley, a mentor, and a friend. Our students have expressed to me how they were concerned that even i would pass away, and that right there is emotionally damming. If we bring them into the classroom and someone passes away, how is that going to affect them . I cannot speak for all teachers but i can speak for the teachers and our immunity and the teachers who i have talked to in the last couple weeks. They have continually been told that children so contract and transmit the virus, but how do we know that . We put them in seclusion, we took them out of the classroom in march. They had been sheltered in our community. Tome, we are forcing schools be open, and that is going to put those students back into the petri dish we have in our classroom. They spread everything. Students are children and children are children and they like to share. Why are we putting them in there . Do we need that to gain more data on that age group . We do know that they are not as affected as much and that only around 1 have passed away. Do we need the statistics . Theld we think of humanitarian value when students go home after contracted and schools and giving it to their Family Members. I firstunity when tested positive for covid19 in a small town, i was the only person. Just me. Number one parent now in the last six weeks, we are up to 28. We need to be careful. We need to think about our community. I can tell you after teaching for seven years and second grade , i have seen them pass everything around from pinkeye to stomach flu to even influenza. Noting around covid19 will be something we can stop and we all know that. Concern is we as adults should not be in a classroom together or animating together. E are working from home why are we forcing children back into the classroom . Why is their lives not as important as adult . I understand that adults contract and have problems, but if you bring kids into the classroom, they are taking it home. And these kids are future. They are our leaders. They will be there 40 years from now, and we need to protect them now. Teachers will be teaching at our district online. We will be teaching face to face, offering whole group and Small Group Instruction on a virtual platform. Schools are making adjustments to address Student Needs per their district. Our district is putting an emphasis on social and emotional learning. Yes, Teachers Want to be in the classroom, but teachers also need to think of themselves and their families. Our job, our careers are not just about students. We also have to worry about our community and the people we work with and our own families at home. I was looking at the money and i would like to thank our government. Our government for what they have been given to us. That helps our district to buy things we needed to get started with students in her classroom, but we have to think about the other stuff. If our buses are going to be making more runs, we are going to need more money to help with transportation. We are going to need more money to help with substitute teaching. If a teacher has to teach from home, we will have to someone in the classroom with them. They cannot sit in the classroom while the teacher is online. Caninishing quote is we recover a childs lost education, but we cannot recover a life. Thank you for taking the time to hear my story. Chariman clyburn thank you very much, ms. Skillings. Lipps. Now hear from mr. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is dan lipps. I focus on the impact of Public Policy and those with income below the u. S. Median. Communities across the country are facing difficult decisions about how to deal with the pandemic. Or prospect of any student employee contracting covid19 and facing the possibility of death or serious illness away policymakersl involved in decisions affecting the schools plan. It is critical policymakers recognize the serious risks associated with prolonged School Closures, particularly for disadvantaged children. Researchers studying the educational effects of School Closures warned that time out of school result in months of lost learning and the learning loss are most acute for low income students. The bottom line is that prolonged School Closures will create a large achievement gap for generation of american children. Prolongs School Closures creates significant risk for Childrens Health and welfare. That is alarming evidence prolonged School Closing have endangered child welfare. We have seen the negative effects for parents. Many parents have been forced to choose between their jobs and childcare and this is difficult for single parents. The good news is it is possible for schools truly open. Issuedexperts have guidelines for safely reopening schools with certain precautions such as physicaldistancing, utilizing outdoor space, cohort classrooms, and face coverings for students and for teachers and School Personnel. Were staying in School Districts choose to reopen across the country with inPerson Instruction or hybrid learning options at the beginning of this fall. , 41 ding to a new analysis of rural district and 20 of suburban districts plan to provide inPerson Instruction in the fall. The majority of the nations largest School District are not reopening with inPerson Instruction. 71 of the nations larges 120 School Districts are beginning the school year with normal learning. Be School Districts could serve more than 7 million children, including one point 4 million children living in poverty. It is important to recognize children from low income families have fewer resources to learn outside of schools. Rich family spend more than 9,000 outofpocket on their childrens educational and enrichment outside of school each year, the poorest family spend 1000. Today, families with financial needs are looking to create Better Options than Remote Learning, including homeschooling, setting up micro schools and forming coops with other parents in hiring teachers or tutors. Children from lower income families have few options. Policymakers must address is any quality. States should use existing cares act funds to provide aid directly to parents in the form of education savings accounts or scholarships to support their childrens outside of School Learning needs. Hampshire, South Carolina are already doing this. Other station follow their lead. As Congress Considers future a packages, you should provide aid directly to karen still disadvantaged children. After hurricanes country in a and reed and 2005, many children were displaced and had nowhere to go. Congress provided more than one billion in aid that followed affected children to the school of their tours along them to continue their education. Many children are unable to attain attend school, how will they provide direct assistance while school is close . Them or written testimony, i discussed these and other recommendations on how School Systems can address the needs of disadvantaged children during the pandemic. Congress has rightly focused federal Education Aid on promoting equal opportunity for average children. In 2020, this will provide focusing aid who cannot go to school. Tonk you for the opportunity testify. I look forward to your questions. You mr. Clyburn thank lips. All of thek witnesses here today for their testimony. To questionsove and answers. I would like to yield myself five minutes for questions. Im interested in your testimony. You indicated the challenges that rural districts have, and low income districts. When i taught school, i taught in a very low income district. Toas trying to teach history low income students who do not ase as much support at home some others. Significant. I would like to know from you suggestwhat would you that may have lower cases . Of investing resources in their childrens learning as you have highlighted here, what would you say the School District ought to do . Mr. Lips there are several options. Thank you for the questions. We are hearing encouraging strategies of deploying Remote Learning pathologies, trying to close a Digital Divide. I also thing providing a directly to these families to hire tutors, to provide childcare, will be a compelling gapto address the learning we have seen in stark terms since the spring. Some of the learning provided, the instruction that was provided while schools were closed was discouraging. There were a lot of pandemic dropouts of kids not logging into Remote Learning. Think giving more resources directly to disadvantaged children can make decisions on their behalf and trying to take in minute is some of the options on what these people have been trying to do, forming pandemic pods. It is not to say schools dont need resources. Some of that age should be provided directly to parents. Chariman clyburn i agree with that, but let me followup. Im concerned about online learning. Which is great if you are connected. If you are from if you are from a School District where the Adoption Rate is around 30 where it is in my Congressional District and you are low income in the first place in therefore, youre not able to hire tutors. Youve youre able to hire tutors, then we have another distancing and masking and other issues. How would you suggest that School District function . Mr. Lips mr. Chairman, thank you for the question. Iee with some of the agree with providing remote construction instruction in closing the Digital Divide by providing subsidized Internet Access and hardware to close that gap. At the same time, i think there directeat opportunity to aid directly to low income families so they can partner with a couple of other families and hire a tutor to make sure students do not suffer the learning loss with prolonged School Closures. Understanding there are risks of people gathering together, it would least be a Smaller Group , the ability to adhere to cdc guidelines. If we were feasible working with four or five kids at a time will schools closed. Chariman clyburn thank you. I will yield to the Ranking Member for any questions you may have . [inaudible] [inaudible] chariman clyburn ok. Thank you. When we heard some of our witnesses testify, it is clear they did not watch last weeks hearing because there was a lot of talk last week by some of the president s best medical experts about the different steps that the president has taken that im not only laid out a clear plan would also how to saved millions of lives. So, maybe they should watch a replay of that hearing and they can learn some things themselves about things that this administration has lastly, we had dr. Fauci, dr. Fred filled and dr. Gerard dr. Fauci, dr. Redfield and dr. Gerard talking about the overall plan defined vaccine. It is revolutionary in where we are in stage three testing for two different major drugs that could be ready to go in a month or two that are showing incredible promise. Becauseonly happening of operation warp speed, the president s plan. The way the president has moved all of the red tape, so we can focus all of our resources from our smartest scientist in the world into finding a vaccine and therapy like remdesivir that they have also approved for treatment for covid19. But we have seen all of the steps that have been taken by the administration layout for Disease Control to other agencies to safely reopen businesses. Nursing homes and as we are talking about today, safely reopening schools. It is not just the cdc. It is other respected agencies like the American Academy of pediatrics. People thatpected deal with the health of our students and layout guidelines. They did not say you throw the kids back into school and have a petri dish setting, probably like we did before. When you go back to a setting that we will see in the next few weeks, it wont be what we have seen before. Maybe we shouldve been taking better steps on client hygiene and washing hands and basic things, but now we know a lot more than we did a few months ago. Safely inw to reopen the guidelines are clear for how we do it. What is interesting as some School Systems have spent all of their time working to get it done and then you see a few unfortunately that are trying to find reasons not to get it done. It is not all about money. As i talked about last week, states have nearly 100 billion that we have sent them that can be used to safely reopen schools. I have not seen a run on that money. The money is still there. Most states have 70 of congress at them in the cares act. I know some people want to talk about new money and hundreds of billions of dollars, but when you have nearly 100 billion that is unspent and available sent to states to do things like safely reopen schools, i hope they would find a way to get it done for the children. I wanted to ask you this to about that. We know that being in person works better for most people. Ourschooling works for education system, but most want the in School Setting and there are studies that show kids in person, there is no substitute. That is why we need to put a focus on it. Have you seen in those guidelines that it is flexible enough to handle different kinds of School System systems and parts of the country . Mr. Lips what we need is flexibility and for school to respond effectively, we need to think creatively about bringing kids back into the classroom. We know that in Person Instruction is the best way to educate children. What we saw during the spring when many School Districts were not providing oneonone instruction, when schools were reportedots of parents that their children did not learn very much and were not logging in consistently. We saw pandemic dropouts of kids, of one fit of the kids never logging on. We need kids to be in the classroom to be able to benefit from inPerson Instruction, but also, there is a critical element that you discussed before about schools being on the front lines of our childs welfare system. There have been alarming reports of under counts of child abuse reporting that is happening, yet we are concerned that those abuse incidents are happening, but not been reported. There has been an alarming increase recalls for the National Sexual abuse hotline, increased calls from children. School when itn is safe for their welfare. Rep. Scalise thank you. I yield back. Chariman clyburn the chair now recognizes ms. Waters for five minutes. thank you, mr. Chairman. Im pleased you are holding this hearing. This topic of whether or not we will be able to educate our kids is a subject that so many families in so many parents and sony people who dont have children in schools anymore are really, really, really concerned about all of this, and amazed at those who are insisting that we open the schools, disregarding all that we have learned about, you know, what should and should not be done, basically as we deal with this pandemic. We know that some gone and we know that some, like mr. Losese is saying, we will some kids. But what percentage of kids are you willing to lose . Im not willing to lose one kids when we dont have to. So, it is important for us to listen to the parents and from what i can understand, most of the parents are saying they dont want kids back in the classroom. We have not been able to guarantee their safety. Let me ask the honorable arne duncan, and inc. You for being here, have you heard about the percentage of parents who are saying they dont want the kids back in the classroom, they dont believe we have Safety Measures that are necessary to protect them . If so, what percentage of parents . It is great to see you again. It varies community by community. Parents are concerned. My wife and i are concerned. We see that in urban districts and rural districts. The thing that frustrates me the most is had we done what we needed to do as a country in march, april, may, june, and july all of us as parents would have less concerns. Had we invested in schools to get them the equipment that we talked about and did the things we need to do to secure schools and make them more viable to open now, we wouldve alleviated those parents concern. But our lack of action and lack of a plan have heightened that concern, that fear, to a level that we dont need to be here now. Waters absolutely, absolutely. Arne, i understand that some of the schools in the rural areas are not sending kids back. They are opting in the richer areas are not sending kids back but there opting for tutors. Of thestand that some president of the United States would be attending school, but if school will not be opening up and think maybe they will open up by october. Have you heard this information . Mr. Duncan this pandemic doesnt know Political Party and doesnt know well versus poverty, urban versus rural, versus suburban, versus native american countries. It doesnt discriminate. For all of our children, not just our children, but their parents, grandparents, teachers, like angela, her colleagues, for them to be safe, we have to do the right thing here. I dont want to delay the start of school. Our kids have lost too much learning time. Upant to get kids caught because we did not have assistance as a country and had such horrific leadership from the top. We did not do what we needed to do. We need to open and close the Digital Divide. The idea of five days a week, six hours a day in the physical building does not make sense. Kids can learn anything they want anywhere anytime. Rep. Waters i met with the superintendent in the Greater Los Angeles area and he was talking about title i students. [inaudible] families. Ysfunctional millionif he had 350 in the state of california to ensure they had the technology, the supplies, and the ability to do distancelearning, he believes that we certainly could do learning with them. We should not allow them to be dropped off the agenda. Do you think we should pay special attention to those children whose parents have not been able to afford the we need thend broadband and all of that for them to be able to participate in this . [inaudible] though students like title i student . Mr. Duncan we have to do that. ,hat this pandemic has done with the murder of george floyd has done, is slapped us all in the face that has shown us the longstanding systemic inequities. Making sure every child has access, not just to a computer, but to wifi, it is as essential as water and electricity, making sure kids can learn anything they want, anywhere, anytime. We have to do that. We have to do it now. [inaudible] waters my time is up. I like what he is talking about with tutoring and teaching one to three kids in the community. I will get in touch with him and talk about that somewhere. Thank you very much. Chariman clyburn thank you. Recognizes mr. Look to meyer for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. Just a followup on last weeks hearing. In that hearing, i had a discussion with dr. Redfield in regards to the incorrect coding of individual deaths due to corona. It was a followup to a previous question i asked to the admiral in a previous hearing. Areound out two more states looking into this as well. We have sent a letter requesting information from dr. Redfield and admiral with regards to what theyre going to be doing about it. Mr. Lips, i just want to talk to you with regards to something dr. Redfield said last week. I can emphasize it enough. As a director of the center of Disease Control, this is in the Public Health interest to this k12 students to get students back, open the facetoface learning. We have to be honest that the focus should get a quality education and facetoface learning. I assume you agree with that statement, mr. Lips . Mr. Lips that would be the goal. We should be doing everything we can to get children back into school in a safe manner and we should be giving flexibility to parents and School Personnel to make decisions about risk, to create the best circumstance for local communities but the goal should be to get kids back in school. These prolonged School Closures are devastating for children, particularly for low income children we know are falling further and further behind every data schools remain closed. We have seen Public Health guidance from the American Academy of pediatrics, the cdc on best practices that can be used to reopen schools wherever possible. School should think creatively about following those guidelines to bring kids back into the classroom. Rep. Luetkemeyer i know there is a paper put out by the cdc that is very extensive dealing with everything from comparing the covid to the flu, harmful learning aspects if we dont go back to school with regards to losing past education, how they fall backwards, and then, the digital way, the virtual way of learning that is not an efficient way of doing it. The social and Emotional Skill Development that is not there. ,afety, which you mentioned nutrition, physical activity, these are all important things that we need to consider when you start taking a look. This is why professional said we need to go back to school. With that in mind, secretary duncan, in may of 2009 during the h1n1 outbreak, 358 children of that year, you said to the school superintendent, i urge you to take your cues from Public Health officials in your area, stay, and at the sinners for Disease Control and prevention. Centers for Disease Control and prevention. Last friday, dr. Redfield testified and said there was an urgent need to get kids back to school. As i indicated in this report that deals with the various issues, but the following day, you tweeted, why are we asking 15,000 School Districts and 100,000 schools to figure this out by themselves . Shouldtion is, why superintendents allow publichealth officials when you were secretary and not now . Mr. Duncan the challenge has been that there has not been a the federal level. We have not done what we needed to do to make this possible. Now we have a thousand people dying per day. Rep. Luetkemeyer let me put some more facts on the table. This is a brandnew disease. We never heard about the coronavirus. Over the last several months, we continue to develop plans and strategies as new evidence comes out and new information comes out. Last week, we saw in our committee, Ranking Member scalise had a stack of papers with different plans in place to try to address this thing. I think that argument is hollow when you think about the bulk of evidence that shows there are plans and we are trying to be flexible to contain and improve and address issues as they pop up, and this is an ongoing thing we have to manage this virus. This is why i think as we go and we have schools open up in my era, it is not unusual to see schools close down for one to. I can see it go down to an period of a week or so. We can manage this thing. We have to learn to do that. With that, i yield back. Chariman clyburn thank you. The chair is now recognizing for five minutes. [inaudible] thank you, mr. Chairman. Can you hear me. I can hear him. I can hear you. Great pyrenees the evidence shows that children catch coronavirus and they spread it to adults, including teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, parents, and and grandparent. Last friday, the cdc released a report about coronavirus outbreaks of a georgia summer camp. Three quarters of the campers tested positive. Children under 10 got the virus at a higher rate than older kids and adults. This is not just an isolated incident. The American Association of pediatrics report that more than 330,000 children have tested positive for coronavirus. Secretary duncan, you coauthored an article one former education secretary that identifies eight basic steps to reopen schools. In that article you stated despite precautions that will inevitably be coronavirus cases at school. Thank you for joining us once again. Why are you so sure that there will be additional coronavirus cases if we fully reopen all schools . Education andth fighting the pandemic, there was nothing there is nothing partisan about this. This is all bipartisan. We all care about our kids and we should all care about the health and safety of our kids. With myased to do that predecessor who have to be republican. A lot of work together. Do not have bubbles wrapped around them. The communities. They affect cases of the coronavirus literally on the first day they open and the same thing i said as my oral testimony, the best thing we can do to keep our children, teachers, and parents safe is the percent of cases in our communities. People desperately want to open schools. There is nothing in it for him to not open schools. He cannot afford to because it is not safe for his community because his community has not done the right thing in the past four or five months. We have lacked discipline and the willingness to listen to science, to invest in our communities. We have not socially distance. We chose to open bars rather than open schools on time. We will continue to have cases in our goal should be to minimize that and we have to do we havehe things, test, to isolate in the worst thing in the world would be to open prematurely, not thoughtfully, to open and have to shut everything back down. It further traumatizes children and endangers adults. We should open slowly, gradually, carefully, with the goal of not being to open. We know that you are absolutely right. One at a Junior High School was notified of a case just a few hours through the first day of the year. The school had used emergency protocol and ordered some students to quarantine on day one. If the government does not communitiesort where the virus is present. If we cannot test accurately we cannoty, if quarantine, we cannot open schools. It is not safe to do that. Open, to open and stay that is a prerequisite for me. We have to be able to test, contact tracer, quarantine, and socially and selfisolate. After that, we can have a conversation of opening in person. Thank you. As a former teacher, i love your explanation of how schools and all the different facets of how they serve society. I want to talk to you about what we have seen in other countries. They reopen schools during the pandemic. I understand some countries have done very well and others have experienced massive new outbreaks. What factors, in your opinion, when our country was able to that reopentain school and what lesson does that hold for the United States . What impacted whether you could safely open and sustain for other schools but other schools are not able to do that . X the major factors are the backgrounds of disease, community, and mitigation efforts. We will have difficulty remaining open safely because there is potential to have so many introductions of cases into school that it becomes difficult to control with their own measures. They are ableif to put in place things like social distancing, universal hygiene, that will improve the probability they can stay open. Thank you. The chair now recognizes mr. Green for five minutes. Mr. Green. You are now recognized for five minutes. [no audio] chairman. Do you hear me . Are you talking to me . Yes. A malfunction here. Can you hear me ok now . You are saying it is my turn to go . You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Rankingu, chairman, member, and are witnesses. I first want to address the handling of positive positive covid deaths. From some after mitts, Health Care Providers have been reimbursed anywhere from 5,000 to 39 39,000. Writers get a 20 addon payment for medicare and covid19 patients over noncovid patients. Here is a financial incentive the democratic governor of colorado retroactively lowered the fatality count due to inconsistencies by 12 . Cause of death after a Motor Vehicle trauma that sudden death ted as covid is not profit that is 15,000 plus cases getting the extra 20 where it is not warranted and it affects the number in which important decisions are made. I would like to take the opportunity to ask the chairman to request an audit of every covid death, how the mbursement patients work payments work. This study would be extremely helpful to congress in how we can protect taxpayer dollars. Now onto the topic of sending kids back to schools. We must listen to the x birds. The cdc says, the best Available Evidence indicates that children become infected and are far less likely to suffer severe symptoms than the cdc and aside from the childs home, no other setting has more influence on the health and wellbeing of the child then their school. Let me know that children account for less than 7 of cases in less than. 1 of deaths, and less of less than all of them have compounding medical variables before the oversight committee. 7. 1 million children get nutritional have your Health Counseling from school. Adolescent suicides are on the rise and so is child abuse. Schools and teachers are typically the worst to first to report it. This is not Public Health versus the economy but Public Health decision versus Public Health decision. Lets open the schools, that is what he said. I am keenly aware of the riskbenefit decisions. We often prescribe medications with significant and even deadly side effects. We way the benefit to the drug with those risks and we make a decision, many times to get the drug because the chance is good that a good outcome outweighs a bad. Everyone listening to me has done just that. Kill. And toxicity can the risk to students being out of school, risk of suicide and child abuse, loss of Mental Health counseling, loss of School Nurses providing a degree of help, all will produce greater harm to our children who will be harmed by covid19. The argument for adults, 33,800 additionaldead, 77,000 suicides, massive increases in cardiac arrests, may or may not allens the loss due to covid. Make, irder to completely agree. Is undeniablethat and undebatable. Harm todo far more children than we ever would letting them return to the classroom with social distancing, etc. , and while protecting teachers. It witnessed today stated we had lost over 400 children to covid19, all of which are tragedies. It was mentioned we should act to save just one life, or in other words, we should close the entire nations schools to save one life. If we followed that logic, we would never allow a single child to ride an automobile. Last year, 4070 four children died in automobile accidents. If my math skills serve me well, that is 10 times more than who died with covid. We should not stop all children from writing in cars. I firmly believe the right decision is to reopen the schools. I would like to make one more point. Nowhere in the constitution of the United States does it give the federal government the right to tell us whether we can open our schools. The whole discussion is federal government overreach. Tennessee is competent enough to make this decision on their own. We need to stay out of tennessee and other states making the decision. Thank you. And with that, i yield. Thank you. Before recognizing mr. Foster, the chair recognize thank you. I have unanimous consent request. To enter into record the following 21 documents detailing cases of covid across 19 states transmitted at childcare facilities and schools this summer. Included amongst these outbreaks are fourthgraders and their teachers at one location, a network of forprofit schools, north carolina, and Vice President pence visited without Wearing Masks just last week. Here are the documents, put them in the record please. Objection, so order. You submitted them in advance and i thank you for that. The chair recognizes mr. Foster for five minutes. Thank you to are witnesses testifying today. As you all spoke about, while teachers, students, and parents would like to return as soon as possible, many School Districts are not in a place right now to safely reopen schools for safety learning. I think it is important for people to remember that just because people wish that something were true, does not mean the science says it will be true. Science will never tell you that there is a safe way to detonate the nuclear bomb in your backyard, or that there is a magic vise available today to allow you to safely reopen schools in areas where there is a highlevel Community Spread with no testing available. The cdc has a guidance that schools should continue Remote Learning until the number of positive coronavirus cases drastically decreases to the low levels we are seeing today. In the National Academy science report you coauthor, you discussed in order to meet the benchmarks to safely reopen, schools will need to reinvent a long list of strategies, including Wearing Masks and physical distancing, limiting large gatherings, creating ventilation and screening. To thesetant strategies when a School Reopens . Can you pick and choose which ones they will comply with and still safely open schools . My recommendation is schools should implement these as many as possible. Places that do not have a lot of viruses circulating may scale back circulation measures but in places that do have many cases, it will be important about vision being vigilant. Are there any examples of any countries anywhere who have successfully opened and kept open schools with the level of Community Spread we are now seeing . Are manyot think there examples worldwide of places that have as much outbreak or virus as we have. I do not have examples of schools reopening that have been able to do that successfully. Well. Ing has not gone schools reopened and led to the acceleration of the outbreak in the community and had to close down again. That is a precautionary tale of what may happen when there is a lot of virus circulating. Thank you. One what enforceable policies can be put in place so students, teachers, and other School Employees can follow the cdc safety guidelines about wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing, washing hands and so on . And how do you enforce the guidelines . How do you respond when the violations are protected detected . Not number of things are 100 100 guaranteed for success. You touched a lot on a lot of them. To deceive again. Social distancing is critical. For is a hard thing fouryearolds, sixyearolds, and eightyearolds to not play tag. You have shields, and i wanted to elaborate on the complexity of this. How do we keep bathrooms clean and how do we change the hallways how do we think tiffany about buses and transportation . How do we think differently about delivering food . Things things are hard. We have to rely on leading by example and if students or teachers do not do it, that accountable, responsible adult in the building, people will go on airlines not Wearing Masks or being asks to leave. We will do those types of things and schools if we are concerned about everybody safety and not just the children but the staff and grandparents at home. Lets ask about how the testing has to be to be useful. Over 20 of what we are seeing nationwide take more than three days to get results. Dr. Fauci testified that waiting multiple days for a test result is not good enough and in many respects, it defeats the whole purpose. Professional sports teams or those visiting the white house have tested and they get the results quickly. Is this level of testing realistically going to be available in most School Districts and what are the implications of the testing takes longer . I think the first goes to hours. Sting return in 48 that enables isolation, which allows us to break the transmission. If we do not have those in place, it becomes hard to get ahead of the outbreak. And we will have a lot more difficulty maintaining or regaining control. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. We are in this agonizing situation because of the miserable failure of the situation to develop an Effective National strategy to defeat covid19. I do not say limited, managed, and contained, and all these euphemisms. Strategy tove a defeat the disease. All of the dads and moms in the country want our kids to go back to school. Dents and teachers students want to learn together. Everyone agrees that in person thanuction is better online instruction. That is not the question. If it were, that would be easy. But no one knows whether it is safe today, what is safe, or how to make it safe under the conditions of chaos. America leads the world in case and 338,000 children have contracted the disease and been infected by an covid19 is spiraling out of control in many parts of the country and we get from the administration nothing but confusion, disinformation, and miracle cures coming from the highest level. Given the refusal or inability to create an effective defeatide strategy to the disease, these must be made these decisions must be made at the state and local level. I am amazed our distinguished colleague to local decisionmaking here when it is precisely President Trump trying to dictate to state and local governments all over the country that everyone has to go back 100 according to these specifications even when the the cabinetols member kids go to are all doing an online or some mixed version of online instruction and in person. Federalism is on the side of the majority, and it is the administration defeating the values of federalism by trying to use money as of as a threat. Six weeks before the fall back to school time, your teachers and contractors in broward schools tested positive for covid19, representing 138 different School Campuses. Can you explain what happened concretely if a teacher or student gets sick in a classroom of 25 students . What happens from there and what does it do to the entire School Environment . Thank you for the question. Will certainly cause major disruption. We require everyone to selfreport. We would then have to isolate individuals, they would have to go under quarantine, they cannot come back until they tested two negative tests so they would be out at least a couple of weeks. We would have to go trace and identify everyone who has been in direct contract contact. And have them quarantine or be able to monitor themselves. If it is limited to a particular classroom, we could find a way to deal with that. If we see other cases that materialize in schools, you are looking at a situation where you need to shut down the entire school and then potentially come back. It is in a normatively disruptive situation. A large part of it, you just have one case in a school and it will create a climate of fear to havees it difficult a reasonable learning environment. We need to take into account that what happens in the school is created when you have that. Thank you. We are very sorry about the loss of your colleague and friend to covid19. Can you tell us what the impact of the tragic loss was on her students and the rest of the school body and teachers in terms of thinking about what to do with respect to returning in the fall . Can you hear . [indiscernible] [inaudible] that is he . Can you hear me ok . Yes. I cant hear any of you. I have a friend Live Streaming and letting me hear them here you through their cell phone. In our community, parents have expressed that students are stress with the loss of our colleague. , there was a palm with their name on it. They shared their students crying and reading the heartfelt poem they wrote for each student. As for former students, i have had former students call me and express how it is hard for them, it loss of a teacher they have all come to love and admire. Many have gone into education because of being in her classroom. State teachers and staff have been devastated. It is the hardest thing to go through the loss of someone you are so close to. We have a very low teacher turnover. We come from this community and we stay in the community and dedicate ourselves to this family. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] your time is expired. You have a request to make . I would like to submit for the record a letter from the National Education association on behalf of 3 million members to the community. Thank you for submitting in advance. Without objection, it will be entered into the record. With that, mr. Kim is recognized for five minutes. You thank you to the witnesses for joining us here today. As the father of two boys, i know firsthand about getting their kids ready for this next upcoming year. We want to do everything for our kids and make sure we are taking care of them and making sure they are safe. Peoplell the american coming from congress and government is the challenges we face to make sure there is no representation or a way to skew facts or other segments here. That is why find it so frustrating that i continue to find theeagues of mine American Academy of pediatrics to back their arguments. I wonder if they actually took some time to pick up the phone themall them and talk to about their perspective because i did that yesterday. I called the American Academy of pediatrics and talked to them and i heard from them a crucial and clear frustration on their part by having the Trump Administration misrepresenting their position and using them as a political prop. It is something we need to make sure we get past. They have spoken out publicly about this, saying the original original guidance was misrepresented and misunderstood. Lets just stop this and make sure we have a discussion straight with the American People and talking about what it is they need to do to get our kids and education and keep them safe. I believe there is a Common Ground approach to this. I think republicans and democrats both believe that in Person Education would be best if we were able to achieve that with the Health Conditions and be safe. I believe most republicans and democrats believe science should in making these decisions and that students, teachers, and education professionals need to be high in the mind as we make critical decisions going forward. Thereeve many of us agree is no onesizefitsall solution to the country and that the community should be able to make this does these decisions. I also believe republicans and agree that we should be prepared to provide support and funding to achieve this. That is why i get frustrated when i continue to see comments from the president and other elected leaders that are saying otherwise. Yesterday, i saw in an interview on fox news that the president told the American People, we are set to rock n roll but the big problem is democrats do not want to open schools because they think it will hurt the election for the republicans. This one torect you. From your perspective, is there any truth to the president s claim that School District are not opening up for political reasons . Absently not. I can tell you that my school board, this administration and the entire community is working seven days a week trying to figure out how we can open schools in the planning we started last spring was to get to the point where we can at least do a hybrid, where we had some kids in school and some days online where we could execute cdc guidelines. It is not feasible because of what is going on in the community. The schools are connected to that. Say iser thing i would our buildings may be closed but education is still open. We spent the entire summer training our teachers with a laserlike focus to be sure that the online experience, the elearning that will be delivered, will be substantially different. We put a number of Different Things in place, in addition to training, to be sure they are effective and can engage students. We created two different schedules for elementary so that there is a morning session and an afternoon and evening session k through five to accommodate fans who may have to work or may have to be there to support their youngest. We talked about tutoring earlier at the secondary level. We are creating the homework hotline but it is after School Support where there will actually be an educator that is certified and available to help students in core areas and their families are available from 3 00 to 9 00. That will go well beyond the pandemic. Kim i really appreciate that an your thoughtfulness comes across. I have spoken to many in my district and none of them are looking at it through a political lens. We need to make sure we are getting kids the education they in me we dont need to have politics as apart of that. Any statements that excuses our education officials across this country is flatout wrong. Mr. Chairman, i want to turn it back to you and continue our work to build a Common Ground approach to get our kids education safely and responsibly. Chairman clyburn thank you, mr. Kim, and thank you for all of your participation. Let me thank all the panelists. I am ready to yield to the Ranking Member for closing statements. Is he still with us . The Ranking Member has another event and had to step off. I have been volunteered to close for him, if that is ok . Chairman clyburn absolutely. I yield to you. Rep. Luetkemeyer thank you. This has been a great hearing today. The title of the hearing was challenges to safely reopen k12 schools. We see concerns in many different ways. I want to go through some other things. The scientists and the pediatricians we rely on for the scientific and the data to show that we can do this safely are all recommending this whether it is dr. Fauci, dr. Redfield, the cdc, the academy of pediatricians. They have guidelines and plans on how we can do this safely. Situation, wes have talked about the health risks and there are health risk, but again, in the paper i showed early of the cdc, they discussed thoroughly the health risks with regard to the common flu. How your children are more at risk from the flu then covid. In missouri, we lost more people to the flu then covid. Perspective is needed to understand the risks involved. The points that i been made is it is up to local officials to make those decisions based on the science and the involvement you have with the medical community with regards to how covid is progressing in your community. It has to be paramount. A slow risk with regard to children doesnt mean no risk, but there is very, very minimal risk. Science has shown that children of 18, there is risk of them being exposed to learning issues. The fourth thing i want to talk about here is the systems we have in place. To do the Virtual Learning, i admire the testimony on the different folks talking about Virtual Learning. That is fine. But we have heard over and over again i can reed statements from the teachers unions, this says remoteit learning cannot be a substitute for in Person Learning. Saidf our members additional learning time this past spring was inadequate for students. While it is a substitute and can get is by four period of time, it is not a longrange strategy, we need to understand how to manage this disease so we can get control and get our kids into classrooms anyway possible. Other countries have done this, where a lot of countries include austria, denmark, the netherlands, norway, switzerland, australia and singapore have implemented different types of protocols in place that have helped the students be able to stay in school and learn that way. One of the things we dont factor forthe safety kids. Last week, dr. Redfield made a comment about how the opioid problems, the suicide problems, are exacerbated by kids staying home. Child abuse problems. There has been a 50 drop of children being reported as abuse, but the Emergency Rooms are being flooded by kids. There is a lot of things to consider here. To safelynges reopening our schools is great, but it is not something we cannot overcome, and it is not something we dont have a plan that we can be flexible enough to change as we know more about the disease, as we learn processes and procedures. Chairman, thank you for the havetunity to close and to our guest for testimony. I yield back. Chairman clyburn thank you very much. Before i make my closing statement, let me briefly address the claims that have been made that Public Health oferts are recommending reopening all schools for inPerson Learning. The truth is, the president s Public Health advisors have made it clear that reopening schools is especially risky in communities where the coronavirus is spreading at a higher rate. Cdc director the said, and i quote, in areas where there are hotspots, remote and Distance Learning may need to be adopted for some amount of time. Wrote, if youx have high caseloads active in the community, like we are asking people not to go to bars, or not to have household parties, not to create large events, we are asking people to sotance learn at this moment we can get this epidemic under control. Thatts are unanimous reopening schools and hotspots are extraordinarily risky. Thank all, i want to of our guests here today, and i want to thank you for your remarks. They had been very powerful. They have been very powerful. 270,000 students and 30,000 staff will be at a school in the next week. Everyone inwe wish your district the very best for a varied Challenging School year. Very best for a very Challenging School year. Ms. Skillings, i express my sincere condolences but the passing of your colleague. I want people to understand the risk of teachers and staff. Absolutely everyone on both sides of the aisle recognizes how important it is to reopen schools. I will say it again. Andll want schools to open we want them and we want our students to thrive. But this cannot come at the cost of lives. Not attending school inperson causes harm that are not to be taken lightly, but there are ways to at least, possibly mitigate these harms. There is no way to bring a parent, teacher, or a child back to life once they have died from this virus. Interestedwas about the state of tennessee. He has pleaded for us to listen to the people of tennessee. Well, we are. Everybodyactly what is wanting to do. But what we are hearing is that your respective of what may be going on in your state, if you dont reopen schools, you will kill our funds. That is not coming from anybody on this panel. We heard from mr. Lips. He has repeated the word flexibility. He has repeated that several times. That flexibility seems to me that it has got to be throughout the system. Flexibility has to be there for local School Districts. And when it is determined by the there is aricts that vital spread in the community for us to have School Learning, they should not have their funds cut off. The auto have more funds coming in order they ought to have more funds coming for online learning. For some reason, no one is anding today about heating airconditioning conditioning units. To me, when there is an outbreak , when you talk about cleaning things up, if this virus gets into a school, maybe for three or four children, and they have a faulty hvac system, it seems to me that we ought to be giving them the funds necessary to repair that system. Not take the funds away for not opening the schools. Say that i, as a former Public School teacher, i recognize that children that catch and spread the virus is i have been in the classroom with the flu outbreak and i also know how high risk hotspots can be. Cdc musthis is why the provide School Districts with clear, sciencebased guidance about the risks of physically reopening schools. Second, we must take affirmative steps to control the spread of the virus in communities. This is going to require shared sacrifice. Some sacrifices are minor. Everyone to wear a mask. We need strong federal leadership and a National Plan to guide these choices, not wishful thinking. Finally, instead of federal funds, we must provide School Districts the funding and assistance they need to educate children safely. Whether the school decides to begin the school year remotely or inperson, significant resources will be required for them to be flexible. Thesess must convict kate Congress Must provide these resources. You heard about the struggles were more you heard about the learning with remote and lower income sectors or with Mental Health concerns. Hardhitchildren in communities already struggling with this pandemic. Famously in red zones. Benefit sending their children to unsafe schools. The only way we can provide relief to these families is to take control of a pandemic as fast as we can. So, if my colleagues are serious about getting kids back to school safely, i would ask that you join me in demanding federal leadership to contain the virus instead of wishing it will go away. , it willesident said go away, but we have to make it go away. Failure to follow the sciencebased guidance will ,s a result, no lives were lost no livelihoods were destroyed, and according to the cdc, we are not in a position where all of our schools can safely resume inperson operations. We must learn from these mistakes, not repeat them. Our childrens futures are at stake. Before we close, i want to enter it into the record, a report of the American Federation of teachers called reopening school safely. , as well as the position statements of the american speech and language association, and assistant to secretary devos. Ask that these materials be entered into the record. Objection, you have five days to submit additional written questions to the chair, which will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. I will ask our witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able to. This meeting is hereby adjourned. Welcome to the first ever Virtual Summer meeting. We look forward to the day when we can all gather in person again. It has been my honor to introduce a person ive been privileged to work with over the past year, governor larry hogan. Hes the chief executive of maryland in that beautiful and diverse state. He has been generous with his time, choosing to devote time and energy to our cause while leading the State Government in annapolis. We have been excited to support his chair initiative, informing the progress of other states and other governors as we proceed with