Transcripts For CSPAN Education Secretary Testifies On Presidents 2023 Budget 20240707

my role as an educator and a form >> we will leave this here. education secretary miguel cardona is testifying on the deadly texas school shooting in the president's budget request. now to live coverage here on c-span. >> all microphones will be kept muted to avoid unnecessary background noise. witnesses will be -- when they wish to speak. if a member or witness experiences technical difficulties, make sure you are muted. call the committee's i.t. director whose number was given to human advance. show the chair experienced technical difficulties or need to step away, another majority member is authorized to assume the gavel in the absence. to ensure when the five minute rule is it here to, staff will keep track of time using the committee's timer which appears on its own thumbnail picture. gable show a blinking light when time is up -- it will show a blinking light when time is up. statements are limited to the chair, ranking member, or those recognized by myself or making an opening statement. 19 children and two educators were gunned down in an element tree school in texas. this is common in this country. we have suffered 27 school shootings already this year alone. we could have prevented a lot of these if elected leaders valued children more than guns. time and time again congress has failed to act or the sensible proposals to respond to the strategies and prevent another one from happening. today i: each of us is never so the committee on education did he ever think we can to protect schools and communities from gun violence and ensure this most recent tragedy will be the last. i therefore ask everyone to join me in a moment of silence to honor the students and educators who died, and their loved ones and the school community in texas. thank you. secretary, thank you for being with us today. we look forward to hearing your testimony on how we can help students recover from this and succeed. 99% of our schools are open to end person learning five is a week. the opening of the public schools not have been possible without the president's rescue plan was delivered the largest federal investment in k-12 education in the nation's history. this funding mr. stupid using the formula so the greatest resources -- this funding -- the expenses schools need to open safely, like fixing dilapidated ventilation systems to prevent an airborne pandemic, making sure they have more transportation to get back students during the airborne pandemic, to have counselors during the pandemic, ppe. things that were not in the budgets when the schools begin before the pandemic. in order to open safely they needed the resources of the american rescue plan so the schools could open safely. schools used these to cover the costs of them fomenting school-based testing, upgrading ventilation systems and staff to reduce the classrooms and buses. the rescue plan requires at least 20% of the funding to go towards strategies towards averting while and closing achievement gaps. achievement gaps are exacerbated during the pandemic. school districts in my community and across the country have extended school days, hired counselors, provided summer programs. they are using this funding to develop integrated programs helping students not only make up for lost learning, but prepare for the modern economy. there's a resource lab in my district for programming robust to maneuver an obstacle course. this is one example of how students and educators can create new opportunities in schools to help all students succeed. regrettably, for too long but all students have had the support they need to reach their full potential. for example, can k-12 schools, students, boys with disabilities, faced harsher disciplinary rates. sexual assault and harassment, lack of accountability of the institutions to safeguard the students. the biden administration has collected data on the initial steps to help inform schools addressing disparities, disciplinary practices. i'm looking forward to seeing a new title ix will double improve protections for those suffering from sexual harassment and discrimination that can be done without violating due process protections for the accused. the federal student loans are critical to expanding access benefits, access to the benefits of the quality higher education of all students. over the past few decades it has become increasingly clear students are taking on a lot more loans than in the past. the student loan system must be improved to fulfill its promise. this is why the biden administration has taken steps to forgive more than $17 billion in debt for 745,000 -- since the beginning of the pandemic we have insured federally held student loads were making payments on their loans and accruing interest. the that administration. n expanded access to the forgiveness program during the pandemic. 113,000 loans were given to this program. this includes $233 billion in debt forgiveness for 4000 borrowers in my home state of virginia. the administration has taken steps to get us back on track. there is more that needs to be done. i look forward to hearing about the president's budget proposal for continued progress to help students reach the lifelong benefits of a quality education. in addition to whatever the administration is doing with loan discharges, we need to make sure we increase the pell grant to its historic value and significantly reduce interest on loans, make the public service loan forgiveness programs more generous, provide short-term help so if you lose your grant for job training programs, we need to make sure those are the beginning to make sure college is accessible to all. thank you, mr. secretary. your work in support of our nation's students. i'm pleased to recognize the ranking member, dr. fox, for the purpose of her opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good morning, mr. secretary. good to see you. there are no words to describe the hard work after the horrific tragedy that happened that robb elementary school. i think the chairman for having a moment of silence in the beginning. we are devastated by the loss of so many precious lives. our prayers are with the victims, students, families, colleagues and all of uvalde, texas. we must be thoughtful about how we handle school safety. changes should not be made in haste. there are many details that we will not know until the investigation continues. as i have said before, i stand ready to work to examine the programs to help families and communities prevent these tragedies from occurring. while we keep uvalde in our prayers, we look forward to the business at hand today. mr. secretary, i wish this was going to be hearing of examples of our working together. unfortunately that is not the case. the biden administration has promised unpopular -- executive lynn by executive fiat. blanket student loan forgiveness is already well underway. it is will be the narrow limits set by congress. in a letter sent in october, i criticized the department for this expensive program into "open-ended loan forgiveness." this is not the only vehicle this administration has used to smuggle in -- the department wait for requirement for income-german payment plans, canceled debt for ineligible borrowers under the guise of targeted forgiveness. according to the department, that means potentially wiping the student unbalances from 4 million borrowers with incomes well beyond that of individuals the programs are intended to help. the administration is right that the programs are broken. it is hard to justify to taxpayers they should put more money into the program of $200 billion, per borrower cap -- which forgives $100,000 per borrower, many are making six figures. it will exacerbate the prices colleges charge students. it is clear cancellation was on the horizon when president biden took office. it has already cost taxpayers over $100 billion. [indiscernible] skyrocketing inflation disproportionally harmed those who never went to college. they are respected -- expected to fit the bill. president biden insisted on going further, moving towards blanket forgiveness to the tune of $10,000 per borrower without congressional authorization. further, forgiving student loans while alienating the two thirds of americans without baccalaureate degrees cuts directly against our shared goal of unifying the country. what does loan forgiveness do for the millions of students taking a loans tomorrow? it is not lower costs over improve outcomes. it exacerbates problems about higher education which is in desperate need of reform. mr. secretary, i will work with you and the president and democratic colleagues to fix it. we would go to the moon for reform that would lower college costs and ensure students graduate with affordable debt and college completion. [indiscernible] it would benefit every american forgiving priority to those with loans over those who did not go to college. it provides millions of borrowers the opportunity to move up the income ladder. it makes this program unstable. last-minute political [indiscernible] must not undermine our ability to provide educational opportunities to those who otherwise would not have them. unfortunately, the department of education has extended far beyond its agenda. administration disrespects parents [indiscernible] insinuated parents for the problem. i was shocked the department of justice issued a memo endorsing that. they did not rally to stand up for parents. schools should be in partnership with parents, not just trying to cast them aside. from the choice program to charter school rules, the favorite -- they favor teacher unions over families who are desperate for an education and to give the opportunity to succeed. new regulations on title ix will only exacerbate parent'' frustration. it denies basic science, and seeks to undermine the opportunities for girls that title ix helped expand. [indiscernible] -- i would spend taxpayer dollars. is critical for a functioning and strong government. without proper oversight and transparency, the unlawful and careless actions. your agency has been unhelpful and obstructive at times. mr. secretary, we cannot tackle these issues successfully if we do not work together. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you. without objection, issue written statements to the committee clerk by 5:00 p.m. on june 9, 2022. i will now introduce the distinguished witness. the honorable miguel core donna is the 12th secretary of the department of education. he served as commissioner of education for the state of connecticut and has for two decades -- has two decades as a public educator in his hometown. he graduated from central connecticut state university with a masters degree, a certificate -- advanced certificate, and a doctorate in education from the university of connecticut. i look forward to your testimony. dear written statement will be on the record. you are asked to limit your oral presentation to approximately five minutes. then will move to questions. the witness is aware of his responsibility to provide accurate information to the committee and will proceed directly to his testimony. secretary. sec. cardona: thank you, chairman scott and ranking member fox, members of this distinguished committee. good afternoon and thank you. i will attempt to answer questions on the budget, to tell you this proposal will be the best tool to address inequity. the best tool to provide pathways to college and to help our country recover from the pandemic. i would be failing u.s. secretary of education if i did not tell you how ashamed i am we are becoming desensitized to the murder of children. i would be failing you as a secretary of education if i did not use this platform to say students and teachers and school leaders are scared. after columbine, after sandy hook, after parkland, after each of these and many other massacres we as educators did our best to look parents in the eye and assure them we will do everything to protect their babies. after each of these massacres we help staff training, active shooter drills, improved online early detection screening tools, and parameters. that is no match for what we are up against. that was no match for and the -- for those 19 beautiful souls. educators across the country have and would give their lives to protect children, but damn it, that is not enough. unless you go to a funeral of a child, you will never know. we must do better. [speaking spanish] there are no words. as an educator, i want children to grow and thrive. that's our colleague. we need help and we need it now. i will transition to the purpose of this hearing but don't think my focus today and the focus of all of my team at the u.s. department of education is anything but how we can better serve the students of uvalde, texas and their grieving families. let's not normalize this. let's use every ounce of influence we have to get something done to help prevent this from happening again. the time for thoughts and prayers is over. we need action. americans are looking to us to solve difficult problems. we should be humbled by the opportunity to make a more perfect union. we need to do better. our kids deserve better. let's find a path forward. the hearing is about more than president biden's proposal for education in fiscal year 2023. it's about the need of students and how we can meet them if we work together. the priorities of the budget is what we've learned after visiting 32 states. small towns, affluent suburbs, urban and rural communities, including tribal communities. addressing opportunity and achievement gaps is more important now than ever. let's close opportunity gaps by investing in title i schools. this is the best tool we have for reducing inequity for underfunded schools and their wealthier counterparts. let's invest in full-service community schools that provide high party communities easier access to health, nutrition, enrichment, adult education and more. in a recent visit to new mexico i met with students suffering from anxiety, depression from losing parents in the pandemic. our children are hurting. anxiety and depression have doubled among youth. teen suicide rates are on the rise. let's invest $1 billion in hiring staff and building the skill sets to support students' mental health needs so they can be the best in the classroom. i met with principals and superintendents so teachers can spend more time supporting the individual needs we know our students have. they need help. we are proposing $350 million for recruiting and retaining teachers. the profession is in crisis. we have a solution. i traveled the country listening to parents, students and families. families are concerned with recovery. concerned with reading levels in schools. they are concerned about getting back to school and not letting politics divide the classroom. parents want their children to learn. the american rescue plan got us this far. we went from 46% of schools open to over 99% of schools fully open now. with your investment let's build more inclusive pathways higher education and rewarding careers for all students. the budget calls for investment in community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, hispanic institutions and other institutions. let's increased pell for 2023 some work it can get the college across america. we are proposing $200 million for career connected learning some more students graduate high school with the credentials in college credit they need. high school students across the country need more options. we have a plan. education gives me the tool to achieve the american dream. i grew up in a blue-collar community. i only had let my public schools offered me. i attended a title i school and graduated from a technical high school. i became the first gen college student. i benefited from quality teacher preparation and professional development. i am a product of the investment of this budget. education brother promise of this country alive for me. we must renew that promise for today students and those to come. the last few years we were tested in ways we could never imagine before. we persevered with a sense of urgency, collaboration at the local level any focus on students. we are challenged in a different way. we must protect children with a greater sense of urgency and collaboration at the federal level. our students are watching. let's not let them down. thank you. >> thank you. now we will go to questions. the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary. i appreciated your comments and associate myself with your opening comments regarding the tragedy that has unfolded and the need for us to do something to protect children and protect their well-being in the sanctity of the school. i appreciate those comments. i want to ask a couple of general questions. one is adult education. adult education plays a critical role in the lives of immigrants and refugees and other families. those skills are necessary what are we doing on the budget to ensure funding for adult education and literacy programs are available? sec. cardona: thank you, congressman. when we talk about reimagining education, we need to invest in providing opportunities for adults that want to go back to school or we finished the program. we asked for a 50 million dollar increase. for folks that don't have a high school degree or equivalency, it's important we provide pathways to all americans the get back to education. our adult education population is critical if we are going to meet the demand out there for these careers that exist now. we need adult education population to be prepared to be successful. our budget does asked for that. there is $10 million for a new initiative for disconnected youth to reengage. we know the earnings potential is greater when completion happens in high school but also college. we have a robust plan or engaging adult learners. rep. grijalva: and classroom teachers. it's aggravated more so with the pandemic. arizona, 31% of teaching positions were gone. 47%. almost 40% of the [indiscernible] lack basic qualifications. one in three teachers leave the education system and it will take years to recover. i'm excited about the infusion of funding into that area. to retain teachers. can you colle -- elaborate on that point? sec. cardona: we are close to a crisis, congressman, with regard to the shortage of teachers across our country. in arizona, i know this is the case. across the country this is the case. we need to act now to promote programs that provide through vines between high school students and colleges getting back to the classroom for students. we need to invest and put in our proposal. $350 million to make sure we are retaining teachers in states like arizona aiming to increase the number of qualified teachers. that's critical to qualified teachers in our classrooms. we saw what happened in january when many schools had to close due to the omicron surge and teachers were in quarantine. it means higher community. a parent has to learn days before that schools will be closed for a week. i don't want to go there. we will create their own programs and to lift up programs, and to recruit teachers. this investment will go a long way to improving education across the country. rep. grijalva: in general, mr. chairman, i just want to complement the secretary on the department that needed help rebuilding and i appreciate the comprehensive approach of the budget, especially around title i. how that will be monitored. i went to a graduation of my grandson from fifth grade to middle school. they were the same age as the kids that were slaughtered in uvalde. i saw my grandson there and their teachers giving them their certificates. no different from the teachers that were murdered in uvalde. we can all relate to that. i hope this budget will be respected for what it is trying to do, rebuild the public infrastructure. the most important one behalf that is educating our kids. i yield back. chair scott: thank you. next we will hear from the ranking member of the committee, dr. fox. rep. fox: fsa -- you are responsible for overseeing thousands of individuals with families information being shared with facebook. shared without any displeasure -- disclosure to families and unknown to the department. to add to the concern your staff is either hiding the extent of the sharing or worse does not even know. we have been seeking answers about this incident. we are being told to the extent of this problem is june three. -- june 3. i noti -- enough is enough. this could impede students from applying for assistance because they don't trust the system. we have sent an invitation to discuss the issues. you commit to the attendance? sec. cardona: thank you, ranking member for that. i share the importance of this. rep. grijalva: just a yes or no. sec. cardona: yes, we will be transparent with you and everyone else. my staff did provide an update. you are right. in the last administration information that was shared that was not supposed to be. the moment we learned about this we put into it and started an investigation to make sure we found out why that happened during the last administration. we are being transparent. we will be having public information to share with you as soon as possible and we will share next week with you all what we are finding. we did provide an update last week because it's important to us. rep. fox: i have several other questions and need to get through the last time you testified i asked if you and your staff would respond " early"" two oversight requests, to which he answered a resounding yes. your undersecretary assured all of us we would get unredacted reports and documents by the end of december 2021. to date we have not received the unredacted loan valuation report, reports he say you stand by -- you say you stand by. $435 billion in the red even before the radical policies you enacted. despite your continued stonewalling of congress and gao, we may finally get some answers. goa peasant working to show what a catastrophe the loan program has become as a result of democrat policies. simply put, you have fallen short of your promises from last year. i want to give you another chance to make good in your word. will you confirm you will provide all documentation related to loan valuation, reports my office requested by next week? sec. cardona: thank you, dr. fox. we are complying with numerous requests. we are working with gao and will continue to share information as we have it. rep. fox: will you provide requested documents with respect to the limited idr waivers, operation fresh start by the end of next week? sec. cardona: we will comply with requests as they come in. it does take time to get information. there are numerous requests and we want to be thorough and make sure we provide accurate information. rep. fox: before i yield back, i've heard the department is finalized plans for operation fresh start. if what i have heard is true, i'm deeply concerned. your actions will have significant implications on every person who has or is seeking to purchase a car, jump start a business and access credit for things they otherwise would not be able to afford. this should not only be detrimental to everyday americans, but also has potential to cause permanent damage to the entire u.s. economy. mr. secretary, have you or others at the department been made aware of concerns this operation will have an american access to credit such as mortgages, automobiles and other consumer and business loan products? i'm almost out of time. yes or no? sec. cardona: we are proud of the first start program giving americans the opportunity -- we are aware of the benefits it provides for americans who are struggling now. rep. fox: have you been told about the problems with the program? problems with the program? sec. cardona: high that briefings at briefings. -- i have had briefings. rep. fox: are you planning on input with the program? sec. cardona: it provides opportunity for those who are in default to start fresh again. borrowers in default is worse for the economy. giving them a fresh start is an opportunity for them to get the support they need so they can pay their loans. rep. fox: the average taxpayer is on the hook for what they don't pay back. many of them don't have the same opportunities you are providing these people. mr. chairman, i yield back. i will have more questions. thank you. chair scott: the gentlelady's time is expired. next, the gentleman from the secretary's home state of connecticut, mr. courtney. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize for my voice. the pollen count is very high today. i want to thank you for your opening remarks. in 2012, we set a horrible precedent with sandy hook. i think your call for action is an example in the way we are passing a comprehensive package. background checks, red flag statutes and the banning of bump stocks and d weaponizing domestic violence situations. that was done on a bipartisan basis and it shows when people try to absorb what happened they say enough is enough. and hopefully we will see that happen in the wake of uvalde. on page 2 of your testimony you point out the timing of the budget created a snafu in terms of the funding level requests. i would like to focus on two of those quickly. one is on the career and education state grants. we visited last january and saw the program and the programs going on. the same is true of impact that provides support for our communities with children whose parents serve in the military service. let me clarify the department will work with us to recover from the issue passed by the delay. sec. cardona: i share your passion for career technical education and what promise it provides. we visited that center where the adults that wanted to go in and win a skill, it was made available to them. i appreciate your advocacy for impact data. we are thankful for the on the package. in the funding. we sent any proposal using 210 -- 2021 numbers and the 2022 numbers came after the package went in. we really believe a big part of moving forward at the department of education is to engage in career connected high schools and making sure the through lines between her high school and workforce partners is tighter across the country. that has so much potential and i know support that, as do we at the department of education. rep. courtney: i appreciate it. i would remind my colleagues that was a bipartisan bill that was passed in 2007. it is targeted to people [indiscernible] teachers, cops, firemen, firefighters, people from the nonprofit sector. the prior administration was granting less than 3% of applications. you have been untangling that wretched state of affairs. i want to thank you and your department. -- there is a webinar to walk through the -- it has rave reviews. i encourage my colleagues who do a great job of breaking it down in simple terms. i applaud your effort to increase awareness of this opportunity. sec. cardona: absolutely. the system is broken. we inherited a system for teachers, nurses and the people we should be thanking during the pandemic. 98% were denied. we are proud of the work we have done to provide 127,000 borrowers loan relief. these are the teachers, nurses, public servants. yes, we will continue to move forward on this. it was a bipartisan bill. it was not being implement it well and we are fixing that and proud of that. sec. cardona: we are proceeding -- chair scott: we are proceeding by seniority on the minority side. the gentleman from michigan. >> thank you, chairman. i think the secretary for being with us today. i would share the concerns, the horrific event that took place in uvalde. it ought to be a wake-up call for us and there are many things we can certainly consider. i hope we would not neglect some of the things. i'm reminded of the wonderful statement in the northwest ordinance that said religion, reality, knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. we went to encourage schools but religion and morality have to be there as well. when you see horrific things like this take place it has to be all hands on deck. in our homes, our schools, our churches. we ought to be working together. we did that for most of the history of this country. we supplemented and instilled all sorts of those key values. i hope we could coalesce again around those things and produce stability in our society again, especially with young kids. marriage and family would be stable. that authority that authority the comfortable enforcement will be stable in our lives. we can work together in those areas. i certainly want to be part of that solution in promoting things that are timeless and can move us forward and not walking away from those just because it is the new trend in society to say your truth is what you want to determine. we know that will not work. there is truth and we need to follow that. secretary, i want to follow up on a topic ranking member fox raised with you. the markup reported the department used facebook's analytical code to collect information from students and parents ensure that data with facebook. the data included names, phone numbers, email addresses and zip codes. when initially asked about the tracking, the department denied it occurred to later backtrack that statement saying it was part of a "advertising campaign." when asked for a briefing, the department told this committee and the senate health committee it would need to do more research before he could brief members. the question i have is that because of the lack of transparency to congress and parents and students, which is alarming, dr. fox asked questions regarding the depth of this data sharing. i would like to follow up and ask do you believe parents and students have the right to protect the privacy when filling out the government forms? sec. cardona: absolutely, congressman. the washington post ran an article highlighting for but learning led to unfathomable amounts of data on children being shared online. "millions of children have the online behaviors and personal information tracked by the apps and websites they use for school during the pandemic." the data was sent to other companies, ad companies and facebook. all this was done with vague disclosures, if any at all in most cases. mr. secretary, do you share my alarm with the reporting on the issue? sec. cardona: i do. i worked in a district. one thing we did was ensure as we are evolving out of delivery of education, which includes online learning, that we were careful and open with parents. it is critical parents know how information is being used. we learned that facebook -- rep. walberg: you agree that, mr. secretary, that we need to empower parents, communicate with them in a transparent way. regardless of who was asking for information, undo access that can be used for purposes other than what was intended? sec. cardona: i'm a father. i absolutely agree parents should have say and whatever information is being shared. they should know about it. rep. walberg: i applaud that. i certainly think that is where we can work together to tighten it down, give security where it can be given and work with parents so they know what is involved and noticed coming at their kids. thank you and i appreciate your response. chair scott: i want to remind members this is a full committee meeting and we have a lot of members. try to keep an eye on the clock. i thank the gentleman from michigan for yielding back right at five minutes. the gentleman from the northern mariana islands. recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much, chairman scott, and mr. secretary, good morning and welcome. i want to thank you for agreeing to my request to include $24 million for an education grant for the marshall islands and the confederate states of micronesia. it's important we keep this -- the associated states. proposal -- wraparound support for students and families. tell us about the important of this made through k-12 education through the cares act this crs act and the american rescue plan. sec. cardona: thank you. yes. prior to the pandemic our country had tremendous disparities in access and outcomes depending on where you are in the country and what access he had high-quality education. sadly, the pandemic made it worse. title i is the best tool we have to level the playing field so children across the country have access to high-quality education , qualified teachers and pathways to higher education. these programs that are funded through title i ultimately result in teachers, librarians and additional tutoring, afterschool programming so students have the access to opportunities that might have been missed during the pandemic. we believe it is incumbent upon us to make sure all children have a quality education and title i does focus on making sure we level the playing field. del. sablan: a report from the gao found one million students never showed up from class -- for class the 2021 school year. it kept kids from the education. they had to provide care for family members during the pandemic. this is the reason why democrats passed the largest investment and k-12 education in u.s. history and the american rescue plan, to help school districts returned in-person learning and help students with their educational, social and emotional knowledge. please share the department's plans. engaging -- for re-engaging students. sec. cardona: thank you. there is short-term and long-term. short-term, the american rescue plans provided funds for districts can reengage with families. i have seen so many creative uses of the american rescue plan dollars. in nevada, they created a team of parent liaisons that went to the community to help families reengage. in many cases the students were dealing with housing and food insecurity. the dollars or helping to reengage students into the school and provide support for the students. that is some of the short-term strategies i have seen. long-term solutions. we are asking for full-service community schools. the schools i did a better job re-engaging students for the schools that had a health center located there, had access to food pantries for the students who were hungry, had access to technology tools so students can be connected at home and who had mental health support for students that were better developed than other schools. the short-term solution ensures the dollars were available to them. long-term is investing in full-service community schools which we know help students stay engaged. del. sablan: thank you, mr. secretary. i have a growing interest in learning why, for example, guam and the u.s. virgin islands have been placed a high risk for a decade or more. help understand why for guam they are continued to be in the situation. thank you for your time. mr. chairman, i yield back my time. chair scott: thank you. right at five minutes. the donovan from south carolina, mr. wilson. rep. wilson: thank you for being with us today and i'm grateful for your service. my wife is a teacher so we have a great appreciation of the profession. our sons have done well because of teachers who gave them the opportunities to learn math and science that they could not learned home. best wishes to our educators. during covid-19 charter schools used their flux ability out on a me to meet the specific deed to their community. over the first year of the pandemic south carolina saw seven new charter schools established as nationwide student enrollment grew.what are you doing to highlight family choice, flexible education opportunities during this critical time? sec. cardona: thank you for that, congressman wilson. thank your wife for her service to the profession. it's important parents have options. we are requesting the same funding and not cutting any money for that. we are highlighting schools that are successful. including charter schools who have done a good job engaging students and finding innovative ways to help them achieve. rep. wilson: thank you very much. i need to brag about my wife again. she taught at an alternative school. giving young people a second chance who in the old days would not have had that. it was so exciting to see the young people give one more chance. many actually succeeded. with extraordinary encouragement from educators. i'm also grateful i lead a letter from members of congress to the committee on appropriations requesting strong support for the charter schools programs, fy 23. i'm concerned the charter schools program would receive lower funding but overall spending on education programs would increase over 40%. in south carolina, 42% of state charter school students are participating in free and reduced lunch programs. what are your plans to increase the accessibility of charter schools for students and parents seeking this option? sec. cardona: we will continue to support charter schools. we know they are eligible for grants. while we did not cut funding, we know the proposed increases would benefit charter schools as well. as i said before, we want to make sure we are providing options or families, including high-quality public charter schools. i can tell you from experience in connecticut, some schools we highlighted when i was commissioner were charter schools, public charter schools that did exceptional work getting high achievement from students. i do recognize, similar to what you mentioned with your wife, the alternative schools. it's important we can brace always to reach students. rep. wilson: finally, with the covid funding, nearly 25% of the $190 billion, only 25% has been used. could this be used to address the security concerns that can be addressed to affect what occurred this week? sec. cardona: thank you. the american rescue plan dollars were critical to get our school safely reopened. the focus is providing mental health support in our schools, increasing that because of the pandemic. as you mentioned, the importance of science and math and making sure students are caught up. indirectly, crises like the one we experienced this week, mental health support can help the community. the funds will help recover from the pandemic. rep. wilson: i really appreciate you referencing this. i yield back and thank you, mr. chairman. we appreciate virginia. chair scott: thank you. next we will hear from the gentlelady from florida, ms. wilson. rep. wilson: thank you, secretary for being here today. i want to remind you of your commitment to come to miami to root visit our phenomenal school district. secretary, i have spoke with an amazing young lady from miami gardens who shared with me she continues to see her student loan balances grow, even when she is making monthly payments due to interest capitalization and negative inflation. my staff met with more than seven national organizations, including new america who had written about this issue to discuss how we can fix our student loan repayment system for current and future borrowers dealing with this issue. in these discussions we learned how dire this issue has become. like the young lady from miami gardens and so many other floridians, borrowers are experiencing extraordinary hardships because month the are not enough to cover interest. as a result the balances balloon even as they make regular payments. can you talk about how together congress and the department of education can address this issue and how do you propose we deal with it? sec. cardona:>> thank you. i do remember the commitment to business 305 and see you later. i have heard stories in my visit of folks who are doing their best to pay and as you mentioned , the interest rates just balloon. so they lose hope that they are ever going to finish paying their loan. this is part of the problem that we are trying to fix at the root cause. and make sure that americans are not afraid of going to college because of the cost. the system is broken and this is an example of one of the ways it's broken. as you know, the department cannot set interest rates. that is something set by congress. what we are doing is making sure we have regulations that have fair treatment of interest including capitalization so borrowers don't see their balances go out of control and we are also looking at the interest benefits of income driven repayment. this is a part that i want to focus a little bit on, because income driven repayment in layman's terms says you don't pay more than you can afford. i think many times people are afraid of going to college because they are getting these bills which are too high for them to consider buying a house or car or having families. we need to control that. it's gotten out of control and we are working hard with the individuals we have to make it more accessible and affordable. we would love to work with congress to see how we can fix this. rep. wilson: just to sum it up, the subcommittee chair of higher education and workforce education, i am going to be looking forward to working with you and jim and scott to deliver on these much-needed changes. we have to make changes. we cannot continue in this vein. secretary cardona, the gun violence that is plaguing our schools and communities is just out of control. the citizens of this country have had enough of our thoughts and prayers. they deserve better. they deserve action. so we are here today for solutions and action. it's beyond time that spineless republican colleagues in their extramural -- and their extramarital affair with the gun lobby and helped pass gun reform in this lobby. instead they offer senseless policies that don't address the gun violence epidemic our communities are facing. just yesterday they were calling for arming teachers and resource officers. mr. secretary, like you as a former school principal and teacher, we know that's not the answer. what does the department need from congress to ensure that when kids pick up their pencils and take out their books, it won't be there last time doing so? >> thank you, congresswoman. i was a school during the sandy hook massacre and the impact that had in our community, i can't put into words. educators go to school to work, to help children, socially, academically. we need to make sure that number one our professions are respected, and the solution of arming teachers in my opinion is further disrespect to a profession that's already beleaguered and not feeling the support of so many folks. we need to make sure we are empowering our teachers to be successful at teaching our children and we need to work together. i think what americans want to see is collaboration and bipartisan working together to do action. as you said, thoughts and prayers are not enough anymore. we need to stop that and get to work. americans are looking to us for answers and we must deliver. rep. wilson:. thank you. -- thank you. i yield back. chair scott: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. grossman. >> thank you. i want to ask a little bit that wasn't in the original materials. the chairman started off by talking about disciplinary differences in schools, implying there was a racial component. i always think that's an interesting statistic, but we are not going to change people's race. but i sometimes wonder, do you collect any statistics on the family structure background of kids? those subject to discipline, those that aren't. i know so many wonderful children raised in all sorts of different backgrounds. i wonder, are you making any effort to collect that information? >> i know that the information we collect from the office of civil rights, civil rights data collection is something we have done last year and we are doing this year to get more information. i couldn't tell you off the top of my head if it has background information that's required of students to fill out on that. i would imagine there is not. >> why don't you do that? maybe we would learn something. ok. why don't we request, there is a famous football player who recently toured a prison on an entirely different level. he talked about disproportionally, kids in there without a father. why don't you collect that information and maybe we will learn something. it might not be that politically correct, but maybe we can do something to get america back on the straight and narrow. next question. this is kind of along with my good buddy congressman courtney. why with all these big spending bills haven't we put something in there saying that you can refinance government student loans? lower the interest rate that way. there are several democratic congressmen out there pushing that. i'd push it. is there any reason why that's not in any of your big proposals? >> happy to have my team reach out to you and get more information on that. what we are trying to do is address some of the root causes of the issues. poor oversight. >> that's ok. we will go on to the next one. i just got out of the budget committee and we dealt with the huge inflation caused by excessive government spending. i see that your request here in the president's budget request is a 20.9% increase over last year. given that inflation, housing prices, gas prices, which teachers pay, too, seems to be completely out of control. i think there should be almost unanimous agreement that it's primarily out of control because of excessive spending. do you feel it was responsible for the president to in his proposal increase department of education funding by 20.9%? >> first of all, the supply chain issues and the russian war is contributing significantly. if anything, the proposals that our president put forward helped americans with relief during a very difficult time. the reason for this request, sir , is because of decades of underinvestment in education. it is to be a symptom that we are seeing teacher shortages and challenges in education. so this budget aims to address the years of underinvestment, the decades of underinvestment. and i'm proud that the president -- >> decades? you mean like the obama and clinton years? decades? well ok. we will give you another question. we have a problem it is becoming a budgetary problem at our southern border. your department has asked for an expansion of the pell grant program to include illegal immigrants. i always felt that was kind desire, because of course we are not including american citizens and american middle-class kids continue to have to go deep in debt for their college education. but it has been the policy apparently of the biden administration to push for free or almost free college for people who are here illegally. do you still stand by that proposal or do you think it's something you might take off the table? >> i remember having a conversation with the teacher who is a dreamer who was working twice as hard so she can help the students in her classroom and the biden administration had been very clear that we do support ensuring dreamers have an opportunity for federal financial aid including the pell grant. these are students who are making a big difference in their communities. >> aren't kids born in america making a big difference in their communities? >> yes they are. >> why do you insult them by offering these programs to illegal immigrants and not giving them to american citizens? >> we are proposing an increase in pell grants for all students and we hope you can support it. >> ok. thank you mr. chairman for the few extra seconds. chair scott: thank you. gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from oregon. >> thank you chairman scott. thank you secretary cardona for your service, for being here today to discuss some of the most important issues facing our nation's students. i agree with your compelling words about the tragedy in texas. we can and must do more. we discussed the student support in the academic enrichment program. we know these grants enable states and local school districts to support a variety of opportunities and well-rounded education including the arts, music, civics, consumer science. title for a also supports a safe and healthy students including mental health and violence prevention and the effective use of technology. based on our earlier conversations i know we agree about the importance and more must be done to make these opportunities available to all students. this year i let a bipartisan appropriations letter asking for $2 billion for flexible block grants, which is significantly higher than the fiscal year 22 omnibus in the president's previous proposed funding level. i'm concerned about the consequences of underfunding title for a. what has the administration done in the past year to make sure all students are getting a well-rounded education? shouldn't congress provide funding beyond what was proposed in the fiscal year 23 budget? and if not, how would that affect students? >> thank you for that. this was an example of us putting a proposal in by the due date, but the budget from the previous year wasn't done. so we are thankful for the funds and we agree. as an educator, and i remember my visit to oregon. we saw programs where students had summer enrichment with music. the summer school was totally different. that's why you had over 300 students on campus. i do believe as an educator i know the impact of it. i know that it helps engage students. we fully support the proposal to increase title for a -- 4 a and i have seen the impacts of those programs that keep students engaged and reaching at high levels. >> thank you for visiting oregon. it was a great visit. i want to emphasize as someone who worked a lot on the every student succeeds act, the importance of that well-rounded education piece and what a difference it makes for students. i hope we can meet in advance of the fiscal year 24 budget to the importance of this funding. i applaud the fact that payments on federally housed student loans have been paused to support borrowers as they navigate the pandemic. i have heard from many borrowers who are very concerned about what happens at the end of the pause, which is why i introduced the student loan borrower safety net act. when payments resume, my bill will help by providing earlier outreach to borrowers, making it easier for them to get an income driven repayments and provide back and protections for those who end up missing payments after the pause ends. the goal is to provide services to help the most vulnerable borrowers. we should not and the pause until we put these safeguards in place along with a comprehensive plan to help new and future borrowers. what steps is the department taking to help borrowers when payments restart and how will you determine whether the servicers have the information they need to best support student loan borrowers? >> thank you for that. this is an example of something we realize we have to do better. the department of education has to do better. we are really proud of the work that's happening under fsa to make sure there are better on ramps for borrowers to get back to repayment in a way that is manageable for them where they can be successful and get back to repaying loans in a way that they are not being asked to pay more than they can afford. we are working on income driven repayment changes to make sure it's reasonable and manageable for our borrowers. we are also communicating early and often without borrowers, proactively engaging with them especially those that are at risk of delinquency to give them options. it's very intimidating for our borrowers to have to rethink about going back into the system. i can assure you the system they are going to be going back to is not the same system where they didn't have answers or it was unclear. we agree that when we do and the pause and start the repayment process, we have to have a more user-friendly process that is more clear to the borrowers and working with our servicers to make sure they have the information they need and that they are taking care of our borrowers. >> i just want to note the importance of this is a short-term solution, but we need to make higher education affordable and accessible for all. chair scott: the young lady from new york. >> thank you mr. chairman. the national school boards association recently released the results of the independent review into their letter to president biden calling for the doj to use counterterrorism tools to investigate parents as domestic terrorists. the report in fact confirms that the biden white house colluded with an sba on the letter, which doj immediately act on to target parents at school board meetings. the investigation also revealed that the white house used information from an sba -- nsba. the white house had a detailed summary of the contents of the letter and its request for federal intervention against parents including usage of the patriot act. mr. secretary, the report also reveals that senior officials at your agency had been in contact with nsba regarding concerns about the increased public activism at school board meetings as early as last july. so i want to ask you questions about your awareness and involvement in the letter. in august of last year you participated in virtual town hall meetings with nsba representatives. during these events did you request that nsba write the letter or otherwise indicate support for the letter? >> i think the same report you referenced showed there was no evidence of that. >> my response to that is -- >> can i finish with my response? >> no. this is my time. did you see those -- did you suggest the nsba should -- to deal with local school board meetings? >> i feel strongly that parents voices does matter, especially during the pandemic. my understanding of your question is you are doing exactly what i didn't want done. let's not use this for division. >> -- all i'm saying is did you suggest in any manner during those virtual town halls with nsba, did you try to solicit any federal intervention or resources to deal with local school board meetings? it's a yes or no and i have follow-ups. >> no. what we wanted to do -- i would love to finish my responses, congresswoman. i think it's fair to give me an opportunity to respond if you are asking me a question. >> you answered no. the report stated that some evidence also suggests that you requested additional information be sent to your office on disruptions at school board meetings during the august 16 town hall meeting. what did you mean about the additional information sent and did you infect fact receive this additional information? >> are you going to allow me to answer the question? >> yes. >> ok. thank you. the nsba as well as other groups that are working with our families including pta parent groups routinely communicate with the department of education as we are trying our best to be a service agency. concerns were shared about some of the activities in some of the board meetings and that's a routine conversation that we have with different stakeholders when things are working well and what concerns they have. that's typical practice here. as i said before, we didn't ask for any letters or information that you are alluding to. in fact if you look at our track record, congresswoman, we have met with over 8400 parents. i have had. groups, parent roundtables at many of my visits and i know as an educator that parents are critical. that's why i'm fighting for full-service community schools that engage parents. that's why i expected american rescue plan proposals to have parent engagement. so look at our track record. >> i know i have hit a nerve here, so i'm going to continue asking questions. so the answer is yes there was additional information as part of those conversations. were you or any department of education personnel sent a copy or otherwise made aware of a summary of the letter provided to the white house on september 21? that's a pretty easy yes or no question. >> i don't recall getting any letter. >> where you are made of the september 22 discussion pertaining to the letter or options we could pursue here where you or any personnel at the department of education? >> not that i'm aware of. i don't have any information on that. >> or your staff first made aware of on september 20 ninth? >> i can have my staff get back to you on what information we received if you like. if it's that important to you. let's get back to the budget. >> it's important to parents across the country. we have an outstanding freedom of information act request requesting all information documents or communications. if there is no problem providing this to congress, why has the department not complied with this request? do you intend to comply with the request? >> we always do and we want to continue to connect with families as we have done in the past. >> and what's the timeline for complying with that foia? >> i will have my staff reach out to you to give you that information. thank you. >> i see them handing you papers. my final question is president biden's doj -- >> the gentlelady's time as expired. you are well over. gentlelady's time has expired. gentlemen from california. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you for your introductory actions and comments. mr. secretary, thank you so much for your passion and your honesty today. i had one area of congress -- conversation in your budget, but i'm going to add a second one so i will ask these questions at the same time. because they are interrelated but we also have to distinguish the differences. first on mental health. you and i have had this conversation multiple times. we passed a bill authored by myself and the chairman just a week ago in a series of bills. wonderful meals. in the mental health matters act, the spirit of it is to invest. and the whole array of how do we get more services for kids and teachers in particular from head start to higher education, a pipeline so we get more people into the field. we know from the the aca that there has been a very large increased in the request for mental health services. very much appreciate the hearings we have had in the sentiment by all of my colleagues including the ranking members about stigma. so what can we do and what are we doing in the budget and what can we do more in the budget for mental health echo and how we coordinate with other departments and initiatives. hhs just announced a week ago a grant for the study in coordination of social media and its effect on kids. that's the first question. the second is more related to what has just happened. i'm reminded of the steinbeck quote but a sad soul has killed more people than any jam. and this hopelessness over what's happening in this country and schools in particular that you address. and we do have to distinguish these. the united states is not an outlier when it comes to mental health, but we are when it comes to gun violence. your 25 times more likely to be a victim of gun violence in the united states. the u.s. has 4.4% of the world population but 42.5% of the guns in the world. so separating those. what you are doing in the budget to do more for mental health for teachers and and students in a career pipeline for people to go into the field of mental health so we can get these services up and second, can you do more about school safety and specifically gun violence? do you have more authority without the congress? and at the same time the urgency you expressed in your initial opening comments about this. can you look at everything you can do to coordinate for the very best evidence-based research that we had success with the minority when it comes to criminal justice reform. give us the facts. we know in connecticut and california what happened yesterday is less likely. it's still going to happen, but it's less likely statistically because of the legislative actions. so if you could answer those questions. can you do more while you work with us to do more statutorily in the conversation with the minority where we can have success? >> thank you for your advocacy. i do believe the mental health needs in our schools have been greater even before the pandemic. in my conversations with students, as recently as a couple weeks ago in new mexico, there were students who said that if it weren't for the supports that were put in place a post-pandemic with arp money, one student said no supports saved my life. we are in a crisis right now. so i do appreciate the surgeon general lifting it to the level of crisis. this budget proposes funds to make mental health supports not just a little bit more but pervasively changed the system to make sure it's the foundation under which professional development is provided for our educators. making sure that more programs are available for families and students. we are supporting community-based programs in our schools so that students have seamless access. we know students are six times more likely to access mental health supports in our schools than they are in the community. that's why we are promoting full-service community schools and mental health supports. thank you for the 90 million in the omnibus, but we are proposing more because we need more mental health support work in our school. foundational he, our schools have to be transformative in their changes to make sure mental health access is there for all students. we are working very closely with hhs and an intergovernmental approach to work more closely to make sure these systems are pervasive in our country and not just pockets of excellence and we look forward to working with our republican colleagues to move the politics. let's talk about what our kids need, give us the opportunity to share from the perspective of educators with the needs are in our schools and i hope we can make some progress. >> thank you. my time is up. i yield back. i look forward to what more you can do on school safety. >> thank you. the gentleman from georgia. mr. allen. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you mr. secretary for being with us today. obviously a day for america and our great country. and obviously we've got some local issues that you may or may not be aware of but i wanted to make you aware of them. in our largest city which is also, they have so demonized and defunded the police in atlanta georgia but it's unsafe. they are trying to separate parts of the city so that other folks get protection, it's just a mess. i would like to make you aware of politically motivated lesson plans taught in one of george's largest public school districts. the atlanta public schools is opposing georgia's new election law and voter identification. because i'm concerned that our students in atlanta public schools are receiving one-sided information on this bill to advance a candidate for office and their political aims. i want you to know that i wrote a letter to the georgia department of education about this concern. this week georgia had their primary election under the new election law and early voting increased 212% compared to 2020. so i think we need to move away from injecting bias and political indoctrination in the classroom. and teach comprehensive facts on issues. are you aware of this, mr. secretary? >> specific to the issue in georgia, i can't comment. curricular decisions are made at the local level. what i can tell you however is the way our system is set up his states and local municipalities are the ones who pass curriculum , and it would be important for communication for those bodies to take place. but i will tell you is that curriculum should be the truth. should be the truth. and it should cover what makes this country so great, but include the parts that we are not so proud of as well. if we don't work with curriculum here in the department -- that would be my opinion based on myself as an educator. >> there is a big debate on what is the truth. i would like to submit this letter for the record, please. >> no objection. >> in your testimony you stated that you are committed to reversing funding in equities. there is nothing more inequitable than a wealthy parent being able to send their child to any school they want, but outdated education policies telling low income parents they can't have the same opportunities. we don't want to lose one child in this country. the opportunity to choose the best school for the child regardless of the zip code. last year i asked if he would support the idea of school choice and you could not give me a direct answer. so i ask you, will you embrace the idea of school choice to allow every student the environment they are best suited for? >> yes. >> thank you. another issue i would like to discuss is the lack of transparency being taught in the classroom. specifically lessons stem and critical race theory. i am proud the georgia board of education adopted a resolution they will work to prevent promotion of divisive ideologies. parents want an education system will allow students to gain skills that will allow them to be successful. i hope you will be committed to addressing these issues and supporting school choice in the department's budget. -- in the department's budget. >> thank you. >> all right. mr. chairman, i yield back. chair scott: we will hear from the gentleman from new jersey. >> thank you chairman. secretary, welcome. unfortunately very difficult circumstances in the last 48 hours. the idea of taking your kids to school and dropping them off. no parent should ever have to wonder whether those kids will be alive when they pick up. i appreciate the comments by the chairman and by you earlier on. i want to make a small deviation on safety in terms of guns and certainly violence and change to a letter that we have sent to the appropriators and certainly to your office talking about the office of school infrastructure and sustainability. i understand that is going to be included in the budget, but i would like to get a little bit of feedback on why even the experiences we just went through particularly with covid and the direct connection with the spreading of viruses in this case covid in general, what we can do to upgrade our schools. but have that central clearinghouse. hospitals obviously know about this particularly given the nature of what they are dealing in. schools don't always look at it that way because it's not health and safety all the time the way hospitals are. can you talk about bringing the experiences from around the country and certainly from the experts that we are dealing with in washington? >> certainly. thank you for the opportunity to speak. we have the responsibility to lift up brick -- best practices across the country and to support and be a service agency where we see that there is a great need. i can tell you from experience that when i was serving as principal of an elementary school during a massacre that took place 35 minutes away from the school i worked in, we overhauled our protocols, sign in procedures. background checks. we had devices in our office. we had a single point of entry. we had -- windows were numbered. and we had ongoing professional development and training for this. and then as things changed, protocols change. our connections with the police department. these are all valuable tools that we believe. when we are building schools, we need to be aware of what should be taken into account. >> almost 10 years ago when i was serving in the new jersey senate, there were a series of shootings that all brought it home and there were those that would turn our schools into encampments that were locked down. there is a definite fine line and keeping our children safe but making sure they are not in a prison, that they still enjoy going to school. this is where those best practices are going to have to come into play. not one-size-fits-all when it comes to the infrastructure. we are free and great nation, but we can't get locked down. if you would talk about that on economy. >> we had to thread the needle because we want our schools to be happy places where kids are being kids. they are jumping, laughing, playing recess without fear of having to worry about being fenced in or having recess indoors. so we had to thread that balance. we wanted to make sure our school concerts have grandparents there celebrating the achievements of the children. schools are happy places. we have to have a balance. it's really important for us to broaden the conversation. we have to be sensible about legislation that could protect public places. because it's not only schools. a week and a half ago it was a grocery store. it was a church. so we need to be sensible and realize it's not one solution that's going to take care of all of that. we are part of it and we always have to be vigilant. we have to be thinking globally about things that over 80% of americans agree on certain policies that are being not discussed. i can't find many things that 80% of americans agree on today, yet there is very sensible legislation that can be passed that we need folks to act on now. >> thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman from indiana. >> title ix of the education amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. however, your department is currently pushing a rule to force every american school to add non-binary as a sex characteristic. how can the department of education enforces sex-based discrimination on the very definition of sex is so unclear? >> we are not pushing for that. we are allowing states who have different categories to use those different categories. updated collections that they are already collecting. >> so you are not pushing for a rule to add non-binary? >> we are allowing states to report whatever classifications they have in their states. >> interesting. so mr. secretary, do you believe that biological male athletes competing in women's sports are in conflict with title ix protections for female athletes? >> sir, i understand where your line of questioning is going. i would love to talk about how the budget is going to help the students in your community. i'm proud of the title ix regulations. i'm proud of it. >> -- boys to compete against girls in sports? >> all children should have the opportunity to engage in extracurricular activities including extra -- including athletics and the arts. >> never before have we had an administration like this one that has decimated title ix like you guys are. do you believe it's fair or not for biological boys to compete against girls in sports? it's a simple question. >> i believe all students should have access to sport. >> so you do support biological boys competing against girls in sports? >> i believe i answered the question. >> you haven't. it's a simple question. just answer the question. >> piercing do i believe transgender girls should have access to sports? yes i do. >> you in this administration support biological boys competing against girls in sports. and you don't believe that's in direct conflict with title ix. >> sir, i see where your questions are going and i'm going to be very clear with you. transgender students need to feel supported, included and seen. your life questioning is even by describing it the way you're doing it, shows me that you don't believe that all students should have access to the extracurricular activities that schools provide. >> i guess where i'm going is believe that title ix protects biological boys competing against girls in sports. does this administration stand by that? we are about to celebrate the 50th anniversary next month of title ix, which was brought about with bipartisan support 50 years ago and somehow, somewhere, you and this administration believe that title ix somehow protects biological boys from competing against girls in sports. you are with that. >> i've had conversations with girls who are transgender. who also look to sports to develop their own sense of accomplishment, to set goals, to work as part of a team. i do support their ability to access what the public schools provide, both at the k-12 level and at the higher ed level. >> do you believe that school districts -- do you believe that school districts should keep a child's involvement in gender transition a secret from their parents? >> sir -- i would love to answer questions on the budget which is why i'm here. >> these are policies that your administration stands by. you are asking me to fund your budget. these are policies that you stand for. it's completely relevant to why you are here today. do you think the schools should keep it a secret from their parents if their children are involved in gender transition? >> parents and schools must work together to support students and i do strongly support and if you look through the work that we have supported and are policies and practices, we want parents -- >> should schools ever keep it a secret from parents? >> excuse me? >> should schools keep it a secret from parents if their children are involved in gender transition? should there be a secret from parents? >> school should be partnering with parents in communication and there are times when schools are working and supporting students on issues that are very sensitive, but i do believe that parents should be connected with schools and in many cases, working together is going to help the student. i have spoken to students who shared whatever situation is at the home that they felt safe at the school and we have to be careful not to try to turn this into something that it's not. in our schools are safe places for our students and our schools are the front line for supporting students when they have issues in their lives. >> that's a very bizarre answer. mr. chairman, i yield back. chair scott: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from washington. gentlelady from georgia. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you so much secretary cardona for being with us today. i was really prepared today to ask you about the department of education's expansion of pell grants. i really wanted to bring those questions to light but with the recent massacre at robb elementary in uvalde texas, a story this nation has had to tell over and over and over again, it's difficult to discuss college grants for our children when we can't even be sure if they are going to survive elementary school. tuesday afternoon our nation learned once again that we the adults in this country allowed our children to be slaughtered because some of our colleagues in the united states capital, some of our colleagues on this committee were too afraid to stand up to the nra to stop this from happening. we lost 19 young children on tuesday. 19 young babies. children with goals, with hope. children with futures. but we didn't lose them we allowed them to be taken. taken by those who should not be able to access guns. as i have told this committee before and i have told the american people before, i sadly know these parents in uvalde. i know how they feel and i know the horrifying heart aching soul crushing feeling of losing your baby. realizing that they will never walk through your front door again. that you won't see them walk across the graduation stage. that you won't have that first dance with them. you will never be able to hold your child again. it is a pain that never goes away and while it takes away your baby, your children, it leaves you with this fiery and everlasting resolve to ensure that this happens to know other mother. that's why i am so thankful today that my federal red flag to will finally be on the house floor when we return in june. they empower our families, household members and law enforcement to ensure that those who pose a threat to their community or themselves do not have access to firearms. my bill will allow these close contacts to petition the federal district court to have guns taken out of the wrong hands. once a federal district court has issue an order -- out of the hands of dangerous people. i urge my colleagues on the other side of the break finally stand up for the children in their districts as well. for the children in america and support a federal red flag law. my bill, hr 2377. we have the power to stop this. i have been listening over and over again as everybody talks about prayers and thoughts and how sorry they are for the families, but we refuse to act. so there are no excuses anymore to any of my colleagues. no excuses. not one of us, not anyone of us has constituents in our communities that are immune to this kind of violence. it is happening everywhere. we have the power to protect our babies. we cannot continue to wait any longer. i yield back the balance of my time. chair scott: the gentleman from kentucky. the gentleman from idaho. >> thank you mr. chairman. i should have interjected earlier, but i will use the first few seconds of my time to communicate that i do take personal offense to what congresswoman wilson stated earlier. i took that as insulting about being spineless and having some kind of -- with some lobby. i just want the record to show that. chair scott: all members are advised to leave out questions of motive or character of other members. so the gentleman from idaho's point is well taken. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you mr. secretary for being here today and i appreciate your comments and testimony. in regard to that, you had previously discussed in your written testimony the need to strengthen the budget to address what you referred to as daunting barriers, especially students from low income communities that face obtaining high-quality education. your budget requests remove those barriers. yet my colleague put forward a letter that i and many of us on the committee signed that seeks to prevent additional barriers department is putting in the way of charter schools to get started and operating. this is a notice of priorities or requirements definitions and selection criteria for charter schools and charter school programs. these schools help the poor and rural students. would you please speak to that? how do you reconcile the apparent conflict here? >> thank you for the question, congressman. i do agree that quality education comes in different forms. quality public charter schools are an option. i have seen great examples of public charter schools meet needs of students and provide innovations. what we are doing here through the regulatory process is proposing what we believe are reasonable proposals that increase greater accountability and transparency and fiscal responsibility, responsiveness to community and collaboration. a lot of the information in these proposals, they are not set yet. , have been twisted a bit to make it seem like we are requiring it. that's absolutely not the case. these are proposals and we have done a lot of listening and gotten a lot of good feedback. >> just a statement here. i want to make sure to communicate something. charter schools consistently enroll at 10% of idaho's students. they have achieved largely positive results academically, especially the brick-and-mortar ones. they enjoyed a large positive relationship with the school districts. the average idaho charter school outperforms traditional public schools and they also do well on average with standardized achievement tests. the administration appears to have some heartburn with the charter school situation and i just want to go on record to tell you that it's working in our state. if you'd like me to comment on that, great. i have another question i would like to get to as well. i'm going to proceed. regarding loan forgiveness. fsa's website states the summary of reports on the claims filed approved in the senate are supposed to be published on a monthly basis. are you aware there has not been any report published since december of 2021. >> i will look into that and have my staff reach out to yours about the reporting frequency. >> please do. it would just be helpful. it's my understanding that there is a proposed updating to be released in the coming weeks. is that your understanding? >> i can have our team reach out to you regarding bio defense. it was provided to 130 2000 borrowers today. >> we just need that information. i also think that your understanding is important given concerning practices by advocacy groups. are you aware of a group called the dent collective? -- debt collective? >> i'm not aware of them. >> just about out of time. it's a left-wing organization. the initiative is to demand and achieve full debt cancellation for all. just want to bring that to your attention. that's what we are up against. chair scott: the gentleman yields back. next is the gentlelady from the secretary's home state, the gentlelady from connecticut. >> thank you mr. chair and thank you mr. secretary for being here. he's actually my constituent. i had different questions for today, but as you can imagine, in light of everything that has happened, i want to shift my line of questioning because like you, i was in the classroom when sandy hook happened and like you, i have children who are being educated in this state. then and now. in 2020 3 million teenagers reported having serious thoughts of suicide. prior to covid it was one and 10. one in five young people report that the pandemic had a significant impact on their mental health and 80% of youth do not have access in their community. in 2019, no statement the student to social worker ratio for one social worker to every 200 50 students as recommended by the national association of social workers. there's a lot of conversations being had about where we go from here. we marked up the mental health matters act which included my bill, the supporting trauma informed education practices. my question to you is what are the plans of the department to address the mental health needs of not only our students but of our educators who are not prepared and should not be expected to deal with this type of trauma and also to better prepare them to identify red flags and changes in behavior and have the resources and support when they try to report those things. >> thank you congresswoman hayes. i report -- appreciate the work you're doing to lift up trauma informed schooling and providing real professional learning opportunities for teachers to really develop those skills sets. to look for those flags, to make sure students are getting the help they need. we appreciate in the omnibus the $90 million for mental health supports. we are proposing not only funding for additional school social workers and psychologists. we are also looking at full-service community schools, because we know in our schools where mental health supports our community-based. you know as an educator it's really important that children have access to mental health supports as a foundation of their learning. and that it's destigmatize. there's various pathways to mental health support. i appreciate the statistics that you shared. we are looking at mental health access as a pillar of how we reimagine schools. we have asked for american rescue plan funds to be used for that and we hope it can promote your strategies across the country. >> i will also add not only for the professionals trained in those areas, but many of our classroom teachers who never had any of this high-level training are the first ones who have to deal with these type of traumatic events. there's a lot of conversation about where we go next and i was discouraged by the fact that many of my colleagues on this committee voted against supporting trauma informed education practices. voted against many of the mental health bills that we brought forth to this committee. as we go forward, that has to be a part of any comprehensive strategy we had. my other question was about title ix. i appreciate the answers that you gave and your commitment to supporting all of our students because i don't know how you single students out until there's a critical mass. there's going to be a reevaluation of section 504 with regulations regarding students with disabilities. can you tell us how you plan to engage all families as part of the decision-making process in that area? >> thank you very much for that question. i certainly agree the importance of classroom teachers and making sure teachers understand trauma informed instruction is critical. we have an opportunity to listen, to engage families, different backgrounds. people who feel that didn't work for them. as an educator myself, i have seen examples where it seems like the implementation of it doesn't work the way it's intended. our agency is aiming to have a very wide net of stakeholder engagement to make sure whatever we put forward has the input of those families and students that we serve. >> thank you mr. secretary, because the answers will be different than they were 50 years ago. i yield back. chair scott: the gentleman from pennsylvania. >> thank you mr. chairman. secretary cardona, a new rule for gainful employment was discussed in the rulemaking section. a number of negotiators suggested that the department go back to the 2014 gainful employment regulations as a base to jumpstart negotiations. however, the department did not do this. the department limited negotiators to two sessions to view and discuss gainful employment. -- and propose to give the secretary authority to remove an entire institution's ability for title iv because of the small program rates. earnings rates and the earnings threshold measure among other items. so mr. secretary, what is the rationale for these changes? >> thank you for the question. we feel strong that we have a responsibility to improve. to improve gainful employment and make sure that students who are going to higher education institutions have a good return on investment and are able to be employed. the processes we are using does take into account input. i would be happy to follow-up with your team if you want to hear more information about why it was done in the way it was done. >> why was the department unwilling to allow for institutions to appeal any of the data? >> again, i would be happy to have more detailed follow-up with the folks from my higher-rated team. -- higher ed team. >> on june 24, 2021 when discussing higher education policy, you stated before the committee your intent to hold all higher educational institutions accountable for misleading students. not just the ones the department does not support. yet the department is leading an office of enforcement to increase oversight over proprietary institutions while nonprofit institutions don't face similar scrutiny. the ftc in particular has threatened to take action against the largest proprietary institutions by their own sec. cardona: i appreciate your engagement on the topic. we are setting out services to ensure students are not taken advantage of. we recognize some institutions are more likely to do this. we do have our enforcement unit what i believe all -- but we believe all schools should be held to high account when it comes to providing a return on investment and this is work we will continue to do because of the system is not working now. i welcome your input and thoughts on how we can do better. but the goal is to make sure we are enforcing good practices sue ours -- so our students are not left in major debt and inability to pay. rep. keller: that should be a goal of all of ours that people get a quality education regardless of institution filing status. we can all agree on that, right? sec. cardona: yes. rep. keller: whether it is proprietary, not-for-profit, public, if they are providing a good education we need to support them. if not, we need to hold them accountable. i want to keep the focus squarely on the students. i think we all want to do that. and, make sure that they have the tools to succeed. but, again, i think we can agree on that. we did it in our last meeting. i would like to -- i would like a commitment. i know that last time we talked we agreed on making sure everybody is held accountable in the same message. have you -- method. have you came up with any plans since our last discussion about how we will do that? sec. cardona: the strategies coming out of higher end with the scorecard, with our conversations, we are meeting with these folks regularly. private institution, public institutions, the message is the same. rep. keller: if that is the case and we care about the students then i think you should get a hold of the ftc and make sure they are not targeting proprietary institutions and using their information to do that. let's make sure we have the agreement that nobody should be using department of education information to target any institution specifically because of their status. sec. cardona: thank you. >> the gentleman yields back. the next is the gentleman from michigan mr. leven. rep. leven: thank you. secretary cardona, it is great to have you here. i have been honored to have we here on many initiatives i work on including the jobs act and expanding pell grants. the course of america's promised college act. i was delighted to welcome you to both community colleges in michigan last year. we have had deep and meaningful conversations about how to protect and strengthen our public education system from pre-k to post secondary. and i want to focus on one aspect of that here. that is the student debt crisis in the country. you know about it so well. i cannot commend you enough for the $17 billion in forgiveness that your department and the president have provided for students defrauded by institutions and your strong start in fixing the broken public loan forgiveness program. that is all great. yes, we must do more. millions of americans have been prevented from fully participating in our economy by buying a house or changing careers or starting a business or even starting a family because they are saddled with student loan debt. the debt crisis is a racial, gender, and economic justice issue that impacts people of color and women disproportionately. black borrowers on average over $25,000 more than white borrowers and 58% of all student loan debt is held by women. the student debt crisis is fueling other crises in our public education system including the educational staff shortage that threatens to leave us without enough teachers and other school personnel to teach and take care of our kids in the classroom. young people are not pursuing careers in education in part because they cannot afford to pay off debt. educators with debt are leaving the profession altogether for the same reason. we have an opportunity here to provide immediate relief. research shows that the bolder the cancellation the better the outcome. canceling $50,000 of student loan debt will make 76% of current borrowers debt-free, transforming lives and in delivering the biggest racial justice impact. poll after poll has indicated americans want student debt relief. it is not a question of when this will happen. can you give an update on when the president bynum announced -- do you feel -- when the president might announce, do you feel like this will happen, and when might the president released -- people in their 60's and their 70's even have this burden. sec. cardona: thank you, congressman, for the work you are doing surrounding supporting our students. i am looking forward to the visit to see it on the ground. it comes to broad-based student loan forgiveness, the conversations are ongoing with the white house and the department of education. we heard the president speak several weeks ago. while i have nothing to share on that, you know the conversation is ongoing. i will tell you we are not waiting for that to act for our borrowers who have been defrauded. we are proud of the work on a one year to really afford $19 billion now in loans for over 770,000 borrowers including folks who are totally and permanently disabled. there is $8.6 billion in relief there. many of them are veterans. public service loan forgiveness, in one year we fixed that program. it went from 98% denial rate. so, you do not have to wait for the announcement. there are teachers eligible for loan forgiveness today. studentaid.gov. police officers, firemen, professors working in public service have eligibility now. we will do that. we will address the outline -- outstanding loans for schools that have closed or schools that a good vantage of students and sold them something they never delivered. rep. levin: your work has been so fantastic. turning to the budget for fy 2023, i would love for you to talk about steps you are taking to break down the cost of higher education. we just can't fix to the past. we have to fix it going forward. you have been a strong champion of my american college promise act. please speak about the budget and how you will lower cost. sec. cardona: we want to stop the bleeding. we don't want to be in the same position five years from now. we have increased ffa enforcement for college core credits. we have been meeting with education -- institutions of higher ed and we will push for the return on investments that americans need. rep. levin: thank you. i yield back. chair scott: thank you. the gentleman from iowa, dr. miller meeks. rep. miller meeks: thank you. thank you secretary cardona for appearing here today. i want to say although secretary cardona you are not in place at the time that it was passed, i had two amendments at the time of the 14 hour markup that would allocate or appropriate to billion dollars for mental health funding k-12 and $2 billion for mental health funding for higher education that was voted against by every single democrat on this committee. i do appreciate my colleague bringing it up. mental health issues, also, i want to remind that there were amendments passed to funding that have gone out the door and yet there are still -- is still funding that has been unspent out of the funds appropriated to schools. we recently heard about these student loan forgiveness. with all of the discussion about student debt forgiveness, i think it is important we identify who in fact holds all the dead. i will say that i am a physician who left home at 16 working at community college and works myself through college in a masters in education and then through medical school. i was one of those individuals who did have student loan debt at 13% to 18% interest rates. according to federal reserve data nearly 60% of outstanding student loan debt is held by borrowers with graduate degrees. through negotiating rulemaking staff your -- rulemaking sessions your staff indicated that the fund would provide benefits beyond the limited scope for the payment plans, low income are oeiras. can you confirm that the department will stick with its initial proposals and exclude graduate students from repayment plans? sec. cardona: we are having conversations about that. i want to use this moment to share that teachers, for example, have graduate degrees. they are woefully under compensated compared to peers that have similar education levels. so, not all graduates, folks with graduate degrees, are in a position where they would not benefit from repayment. rep. miller meeks: you have given me no confirmation that you would limit those that are not within low income borrowers. that is not very reassuring. furthermore, student loan forgiveness has the -- also the effect that there is no requirement for school to address spiraling or skyrocketing cost. i would like to thank my colleague representative fulcher for bringing up charter schools. in iowa we have a robust -- robust education opportunities. our governor has made that point, given the increase in achievement especially in our minority populations i think all of us agree that the most important thing we do is educate regardless of what institution. with that, i yield the balance of my time. chair scott: thank the gentlewoman for yielding. >> mr. secretary, to stick with this issue about loans. operation fresh start. do you plan on announcing the details of the plan within the next week? if not, when? sec. cardona: i do not have the information from the higher ed office but i can have my team reach out to you within the next week. >> when we were talking about the issue earlier your comments made me think we were talking part one -- pardon me, past one another. can you provide us with the details of what it is planning to do? sec. cardona: we recently announced, the fresh start program to allow borrowers who are either in default or delinquent in their payments to have the benefit of a fresh start so they can get back on. it would not harm their credit score and their ability to move on financially. we have announced of that. i am not sure if that is what they are referencing. rep. foxx: that will cause a major problem with credit for people with credit scores and credit histories. it may harm those people from getting loans for other things in the future. we do not believe you have the authorization to do most anything of what you are doing. we will continue to pressure under what authorization you are doing what you're doing. i think the gentlelady for yielding. i yield back to her. chair scott: the gentlelady yields back. thank you. the gentlelady from minnesota ms. omar, from michigan, ms. stevens. rep. stevens: thank you mr. chair and thank you secretary for coming to speak with us. i appreciate the opportunity i have had to discuss my passion around helping the 200,000 covid-19 orphans in the usa. and what we will do to help them. i deeply appreciate you coming before this committee for examining this subject. this is a profound and a deep irony that this committee that has some of the greatest opportunities to benefit young people of america had to take a committee markup last week to invest in mental health resources for college students. we had to take a vote on an amendment that would strip the protections for lgbtq students. it is further ironic, if that is the priority of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, we have yet again witnessed, another tragic and horrible shooting. yes, we pray for, honor, and mourn the families of the 19 students. i am not sure, mr. secretary, if you had a chance to hear the testimonial witness statement from the young boy that survived the shooting, but everything we are doing as lawmakers does not make sense if it is not prioritizing the safety of our students. we are failing at that. i know, mr. secretary, that this is a pain point for you, for your heart. i know that in the cabinet of president biden, you are trying to do everything you can and we will continue to support you in that effort. but, the misguided attempts of our colleagues on the others of the aisle, all 17 who voted to strip away protections of lgbtq students at the college level seeking mental help, when we have gun violence after gun violence, they don't take the vote to even study gun violence in our schools. your agency efforts to promote safety, mr. secretary, r para boy -- paramount. i want to ask you about a passion point of mine, the individuals with disabilities in education act. the 2023 budget had the largest two year increase program that puts us on a path to fully funding ida part d to support the pipeline of special education teachers and personnel that is so important. i was wondering, mr. secretary, if you could speak to why the significant increases for idea are needed. sec. cardona: 60% of our lgbtq youth who wanted mental health care last year did not have access to it. this is a group of students who has told us repeatedly the pandemic increase to the anxiety, the trauma. so thank you for staying that sharing that. -- for sharing that. idea grants, the work to make sure that all students have access to high-quality learning through individualized educational plans based on the different abilities our students have is critical. many times, these plans allow for additional peer educators to support students through assistance technology. it allows students the ability to speak through speech services. for us, this is fundamental. the pandemic exacerbated gaps between our students with disabilities and our other students. we have heard loud and clear from parents that they need more now. this money is critical. rep. stevens: yes. to everyone watching back home for this important hearing, it is very clear who is standing for all students, who is making sure we are pushing for equal funding for idea, the full funding for idea, a critical part of my mission on behalf of oakland county and as a representative who has brought attention to this topic through town halls and whatnot. thank you mr. secretary for the datapoint. it is sad when we have to take votes, which, by the way, many of our colleagues on the others of the aisle were not even present for, when we cannot take the steps to invest in mental health for lgbtq or do basic work to keep students safe. i yield back. chair scott: thank you. the gentleman from utah, mr. owens. rep. owens: i would like to add a quick response to your opening statement. i have benefited throughout my life from through this difficult time. as a representative of this great nation we should never present our fellow americans with a fault nation -- notion that it is too late to support each other. we are one nation under god and this is the one way we connect in dark times. mr. secretary, over the last year, the price of gas in utah has increased more than 37%. between utah's enrollment in public and charter schools, many parents drive their children's to school outside the neighborhood. families in utah are not wealthy and struggling to keep up with inflation. i have heard with several schools in my district that drops on student attendance are in part due to higher cost at the pump. we are told that inflation is transitory at the cost of living for families has increased by eight point 3%. inflation is negatively impacting the choice of school education for students and parents. sec. cardona: i did not hear the question. i heard you sharing about the cost of inflation. rep. owens: would you acknowledge that inflation is negatively impacting the choice of school education for students and parents? sec. cardona: i don't have information on that. i do recognize that the challenge has caused all of us. it has resulted in lessening school choice, i am hearing what you are saying and i am recognizing that this is happening in your community but i don't have any information that tells me about other communities. rep. owens: when parents have to get in the car and drive their kids to their education, it is impacting all kids -- parents that care that much. i was made to see how some members of congress, other elected officials took such a harsh political line so quickly. me and my colleagues want productive conversations. i will be happy to sit down and discuss what we can do to help schools address these issues. recently i looked into what school safety programs exist presently funded by the federal government. i learned there were related programs in several agencies to address prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery. can you tell us the current status of school safety programs under your jurisdictions, what guidance you have issued to address school safety, and how can other industries ensure the guidances responsive, current, and coordinated? sec. cardona: i appreciate your sentiment about wanting to partner with us and i welcome an opportunity from my team -- for my team to meet with tears. i agree, it should be bipartisan. we should be working together. we have a team that is developing more strategies bringing together different strategies from across the country. we have the school emergency reduction of violence fund and team that has been in contact already with this community in texas and will continue to be. part of this team's work is to lift up practices across the country. it is an ongoing process but i would be happy to have my team meet with yours to hear your thoughts and work together on this. rep. owens: an answer you gave to one of my colleagues earlier was a pretty different answer. my dad and mom were both educators. never was it suggested that teachers are parents. if they are not learning abcs but instead going through indoctrination or gender transitioning it is extremely disturbing. it is hard to believe that any father or mother would be ok with secrets withheld from them regarding this health and welfare of their children. with that i want to yield the remaining time i have. rep. foxx: mr. secretary, what specific language in the efca authorizes you to add additional requirements to the charter school program? it requires you to consult with charter schools before additional regulation and you are not authorized without that consultation. sec. cardona: this is for discretionary funds in their proposals we have. rep. foxx: so, you have authorization under the statutes because they are discretionary funds, is that your answer? sec. cardona: we have authority to make proposals. rep. foxx: but, you're required -- having additional requirements to the charter school program, what is the authorization in the statute? sec. cardona: we are trying to increase the accountability, engagement, all things i think i have heard from you are important in education. i think there is a misconception that we do not support equality of public and charter schools. that's not the case. rep. foxx: you're not answering the question. thank you, mr. chairman. chair scott: next, the gentlelady from new mexico. >> thank you, chairman scott and a secretary cardona for beginning today's hearing by acknowledging the 19 families who will not see their child go on to middle school or take pictures of them before their first school dance. who will not get to help them decide which college to attend or take them to college or what their life plans are. you know, it's not just them. it's not just uvalde. we have learned it is a tightknit community and the whole community is suffering. [speaking spanish] rep. leger fernandez: my constituents and i are sick of an action. the house passed multiple bills to address the gun violence crisis. some of them with even some republican votes, bipartisan. all we need is 10 republican senators who have the courage to stand with the nearly 90% of americans who support sensible gun safety legislation. we could use the help of more republican house members. the republicans on this committee and others that will put our children as a priority instead of the gun lobby. we cannot effectively teach our nations children if everybody is not safe in those schools. secretary cardona, thank you for the work you are doing. with regards to safety. and, for your very measured and intelligent responses today. i will talk about minority serving institutions because every institution of higher education in my district is a minority serving institution. the majority of those are hispanic serving institutions or hsis. in the wake of covid-19 hs eyes have been asked --hsis are being asked to to do more with less in inadequate buildings with inadequate funding. i noticed the $236.7 million request in your budget. the question is it continues to be insufficient in meeting the needs of the 559 hsis and the 5.1 million students they educate and serve. how do you envision closing the disproportionate gap for the 559 hsis with the request for title ix part a at 236.7 million? sec. cardona: thank you for the remarks around the responsibility we have two protect our babies. hispanic serving institutions, hbcus, punch above their weight. in many cases the institutions do not have the funds they need to keep up with research and development so they can continue to grow. in the new budget proposal there is $458 million proposed to expand research and development, and infrastructure as minority serving institutions, hsis as well. we recognize that the importance of these institutions and how we need to make tt only serve the students during the pandemic but also grow their institutions as well. rep. leger fernandez: i also want to discuss an issue brought up to be wherever i go. that is education workforce shortages, especially, the need to recruit a diverse workforce in new mexico. it is native american and latin american bilingual education speakers. we don't have enough -- a lot of time but how will you be working to support school districts diversifying the educator workforce? sec. cardona: our proposal asks for funds there. i want pipeline programs in high school. i want high school students getting college credit connected to a four year school so when they graduated they are ready to go back into the community that served them so well and become teachers. i want to use the funds to initiate programs that have apprenticeship around teacher preparation, mentorship to retain teachers too. it is not just getting them, it is keeping them in the profession. i want to make sure we are supporting our teachers and elevating the profession so more people want to go into it. rep. leger fernandez: thank you secretary cardona. that issue of getting them to stay in the community is so key. i yield back. thank you for the hearing. chair scott: thank you. my colleague from virginia. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you mr. secretary. mr. secretary, i realize it is difficult when you are on the losing side of every issue and the truth about your policies are not popular with american people. but i hope you can appreciate it is our job to exercise oversight on the half of americans and expose the arm of these policies. truthful answers would be appreciated. you said you were calling for more covid funding for schools. why should we do this when schools are requesting more time to spend previously allocated funds and some are spending them on things like football fields and weight rooms? sec. cardona: with regard to american rescue plan use of funds i am proud of what i have seen. schools were able to reopen with better ventilation systems. i visited white plains, new york. rep. good: i am not asking what they used it for. i am asking why don't we -- why do we give them more money when they are not using what is allocated? some of them are using it for things that is nothing to do with the virus situation. switching to student loans. the biden administration moratorium has cost taxpayers some hundred billion dollars before the desperate attempt in order to buy boats -- votes that we should forgive student loans this fall. who should pay for student loans? who should the debt transfer to? who do you think should pay a person's student loan? who should the debt be transferred to? sec. cardona: i think our loan forgiveness work this year has helped many -- rep. good: who do you think should pay a person's student loan if they don't wish to pay it? sec. cardona: i'm not sure that the person who took out the loan should be paying the loan. rep. good: the person who took out the loan should pay the loan. so you agree that we should not have somebody who did not go to college pay someone else's student loan, correct? sec. cardona: i think i know where you are going with that said i want to say there was poor oversight. rep. good: do you think somebody who did not go to college should pay someone else's student loan? do you think somebody who did not go to college should work to pay someone else's student loan? don't talk about oversight. you think somebody who did not go to college should be forced to pay someone else's student loan? i know some but he who worked their way through school so they would not have to pay student loans. should they pay someone else's student loan? how about somebody who has already paid off their student loan. they doubled her down and worked two or three jobs. you know where the money comes from, right? it is from the american people. the government has no money. you cannot forgive student loans. we like to use that term. it is just transferred to somebody else. who shouldn't be transferred to? who should pay for that? especially when 60% of the student loan balances are held by high income earners who went to grad school so there is a disproportionate impact towards high income earners if we forgive all student loans. who should have to pay that? sec. cardona: bipartisan public service loan forgiveness is an example of a loan forgiveness program that was bipartisan past and was mismanaged. rep. good: thank you. that is what i was referring to earlier. the impact of this administration's policies. i have a federal student loan integrity act i have sponsored along with jim banks that would prohibit you from extending the moratorium on student loan repayments, let alone forgiving. school choice. you said today you support a school choice during someone else's earlier questioning. and parents should be able to decide where kids go to school. will you help us advocate for congress to pass school choice legislation? sec. cardona: i don't push for specific legislation. i asked you work in collaboration -- rep. good: with -- would you support legislation that would support school choice? i have the choice act that would allow struggling families to decide where their education dollars go in 20 to five -- 25 states. are you in favor? sec. cardona: i am in favor of making sure public schools have adequate funding so all students have an option. rep. good: another question. have you gotten an update from regarding attorney general garland's memo about going after school parent ship? we are having trouble getting answers on the review. sec. cardona: i support joyce. i'd -- choice. i don't support -- rep. good: have you gotten an update on targeting school parents based on the october 4 memo from ag garland? sec. cardona: i have not. but i am happy to have my team reach out to you if you have questions about the rolloff. rep. good: i yield back. chair scott: gentlelady from pennsylvania. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you, secretary cardona for being here today. i apologize for the tone and attitude you have been experiencing from some of our questioners. dr. cardona, the covid-19 pandemic has changed the life of every american and had an especially dramatic effect on our nation's young people. i have to tell you, i am candidly very proud to have help to the american rescue plan last spring which spent $130 billion of federal funding for schools and students. schools in pennsylvania rest i've -- received more than $5 billion. schools in my home of lehigh valley received hundreds of millions of dollars. i am very proud the funding is being used today to keep the safely physically open and get schools back on track. i want to tell you a couple examples. the easton area school district in my district tired new staff to provide supplemental instruction to help students catch up on their academics. that school district also purchased new technology for students, more library books, more stem materials. the marriott school district paid for a new hvac system for three buildings to improve air quality and keep student safer in their classrooms. this district has also hired new instructional coaches to improve student mass and illiteracy skills -- math and literacy schools and support mental health needs. the allentown school district, the most distressed public school district we have has paid for facility upgrades and hvac improvements that were desperately necessary because some buildings in the district were built in the 1800s. the district prioritized programs to address learning laws including academically covering an acceleration effort. i am proud to share these stories with you to emphasize the way in which the funding that was wrought into law as a result of the american rescue plan has continued to support students and educators. dr. cardona, i would like you to highlight additional ways you are aware of that schools and educators across the nation have been using our money to enable safe in person learning at makeup for lost structural time. i don't mean to put you on the spot, but if anything particularly comes to mind i would love to hear from you. sec. cardona: i visited new mexico recently. i was in a high school. i spoke to a student. we had a roundtable. this was really poignant for me. this young man said, my life was spiraling out of control during the pandemic. his mother died due to covid. he said that he was engaging in very bad activity and got to a .1 day where there was going to be an act of violence committed for another student. if it were not for the restorative circles that the school did with a staff member that was -- whose salary is paid for by the american rescue plan, he might have committed that act. he said to me literally, this saved my life. now he is on the path to mental health support and graduation. that is one example. i visited oregon. i saw summer programs with double and triple the number of students in a fitting from social interaction -- benefiting from social interactions. these are students who the year prior were working on a lab type -- laptop and did not have social interaction. we know the importance of social interaction for young children. i mentioned white plains. the improved airflow, a lot of the schools are opening quicker. afterschool programs for students to get reading support because reading support was not what it should have been during the pandemic. mental health counselors. new york is hiring hundreds of school social workers with american rescue plan dollars. rep. wild: i will stop you for a second because you have been talking about mental health as my next question is about that. it is wonderful how states and districts have been able to use arp funds to support student social and emotional mental health needs. can you tell the committee why the extra funding is necessary and why will it be needed for the next few years? sec. cardona: thank you for the second part of the question. this is not a one-time thing. mental health needs were greater before the pandemic. now, i mean, research study after research study shows the -- it is at a point now of crisis. the surgeon general called it a crisis in our schools, in our country, the mental health needs. we have anxiety levels and suicide rates up. if we want to protect lives we need to look at mental health support, not only as a fix for the pandemic but as an underlying necessity for successful schools that meet the needs of students. rep. wild: i would love to talk further about my time has run out. i yield. chair scott: the gentlelady from michigan ms. mclean, is not on scene -- screen. the gentlelady from tennessee, ms. harshbarger. rep. harshbarger: thank you. i want to follow up on with the representative line of questioning. since you said no to anything to do with having solicited the later request -- letter requesting the doj investigate concerned parents as domestic terrorists, will you call on our attorney general garland to resent his memo asking the fbi to investigate parents, yes or no? sec. cardona: reach out to the doj about their letters. rep. harshbarger: i assume that is a no. let me turn your attention to the written testimony today. you only used the word parent once in your testimony, even then, not in any way that would indicate how important parents' involvement is to children's education. do you believe parents should have a role in the education of their children? sec. cardona: yes. if you allow me to follow up, i can share what we have done in the last year rep. -- harshbargerrep.: what role do you think parents have in determining appropriate curriculum for children? sec. cardona: parents are their child's first and most important teachers. we only play a supporting role. as a parent, it is critically important i am engaged and involved in the process. i want to be very clear about that. when we ask for states how they will use the money, stakeholder engagement was a requirement. we require states revived that. we have had conversations with more than 8400 parents in one year. we want to hear from them. it's not just talk. in terms of curriculum, i do believe parent engagement is critical. for the holistic experience of children including topics like curriculum. that is why we have boards of education set up, made up, in many cases, by parents. that is why they should have public comment. i support that. as a former assistant superintendent i value the input of those local parents and the benefit of curriculum and also the challenges that the school is providing. rep. harshbarger: this goes back to the attorney general and the letter sent to the doj. evidently, they do not think parents should have a bigger role in curriculum. i believe parents should have a bigger role in the curriculum their children are learning and honestly, you know, i am sick of bureaucrats telling us what is inappropriate or appropriate for our own children. if it were up to me, sir, i would do away with the department of education and labor altogether and give the authority back to the states. that is just me. in the time left i will yield to representative and ranking member fox. x. rep. foxx: fsa and cfpb are clearly in regular communications as their actions and questions are obviously coordinated. i'm not asking. i am observing a fact. what i want to know is why you are not coordinating or providing the same fear and consistent guidance to borrowers in your contra ash and your contractors about how the various labor programs and return to repayment are supposed to work. i am not talking similar or close, i mean the same exact guidance. so, everything understands the role of the law so you or cfpb cannot come back months or years later and change their minds. borrowers and contracted partners deserve detailed and consistent guidance from all government agencies. mr. secretary, is the lack of communication a failure of your department to develop detailed plans before putting out flashy press releases, or is this vague, deceptive, or nonexistent guidance intentional because the full plan is not actually known at the time of the flashy press hits? sec. cardona: dr. foxx, with all due respect i think those are two bad options i have. we want to work with see ffp. if there are ways you think we need to improve communication, as you said at the beginning, let's work together. i sent you that letter seven or eight months ago. there is so much commonality. let's work on things we can improve together. i believe we are in this situation because of poor information. we are working really hard to be clear with our borrowers, to provide charity silly are not misled like so many places misled them. rep. foxx: maybe it is because you're contracted partners in the loan services are not giving clear information -- getting clear information from the department on how to handle it. you should not be bypassing those people. those are the partners you have to help you do it. you cannot do this through the department. you have contracted with people and you are treating them very poorly. chair scott: you are on mute. rep. foxx: i yield to the gentlewoman from tennessee. chair scott: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from new york, mr. jones. the gentlelady from north carolina, ms. manning. rep. manning: thank you mr. chairman and secretary cardona for all your work and your patients today. before turning to my questions are want to respond to my republican colleagues claim that school districts are not spending covid-19 relief funding. the federal government has awarded 100% of elementary and secondary school emergency relief funding across all 50 states and the district of columbia and puerto rico. as of march 23, 2022 approximately 91% of the cares act funds had been drawn down or spend by states and districts. each week, more funds are drawn down. according to submitted state and district plans, which are required by the american rescue plan, funds are being used to implement evidence-based practices that address learning loss and support students 'social, emotional, and mental health. i would like to point out to my republican colleagues that focusing on spending data alone is misleading. in a recent report the nonpartisan government accountability office found it is important to consider state or district financial commitment or obligation to paint a more complete picture. for example, schools that abuse funds to hire teachers or school counselors will spend extra money each time payroll is paid from now until 2024. likewise, many school districts are required to pay out contracts only after all services have been rendered. so a district that has a year-long contract with a tutoring company must spend funds to pay out the contract at the end of the year. the federal government has obligated company -- covid-19 funding and as we have heard today, states and districts are using the funds to help schools recover. now, i would like to turn to my questions. mr. secretary, as we know, the pandemic has taken a tremendous toll on our nation's youth. there has been a 25% increase in pediatric emergency room mental health cases since the start of the pandemic. addressing mental health needs has become increasingly important for our nationsyou that is why i introducedth. hr 5526 to add mental health education to existing guidelines for local school wellness policies and increased resources for more mental health providers at our schools. we know these resources are desperately needed to help students. i have heard from superintendents in my district, north carolina six. we have also heard from educators, first responders, and health-care workers that we simply do not have enough mental health providers in our country. i was extremely pleased to see the president's fiscal year 2023 budget proposal includes $1 billion for the creation of a new grant program to increase the number of licensed mental health professionals in our school. can you speak to the importance of the proposed funding and talk about how the department will work to ensure the program has the intended effect? sec. cardona: thank you. i appreciate the comment he made earlier about how districts are actually using the money and how you do not spend it all in one way. when the services are done is when you get the payment. thank you for bringing up the fact that the budget does propose long-term remedies for problems we are dealing with now, not just short-term. what it does is provide funds to create programs that help develop the mental health personnel we know we will need moving forward. so, it is not only embracing the need for more mental health support workers through other funding, but, investing in programs that will lead to sustainable production of highly qualified mental health support staff. we are proud of that and we are hopeful that this could really launch model programs that could be replicated throughout the country, not only with mental health, but in special education, bilingual education. so many areas are shortage areas. i am pleased that the budget does put funds to try to address that problem. rep. i am also pleased to see an increase to expand research and develop meant infrastructure at these institutions. i have three excellent hbcus and an excellent msi in my district. can you talk for just the 10 seconds i have left about the importance of that funding? sec. cardona: they are punching above their weight. this is a recognition of education in our country. rep. manning: i yield back. chair scott: chair scott: thank you. we need a 10 minute break. sec. cardona: are you asking me? chair scott: yes. sec. cardona: i think a few more. chair scott: the gentlelady from illinois, ms. miller. rep. miller: during the blm riots in 2020, many left wing school districts did their contracts with police departments and removed school resource officers from schools as part of the left defund the police movement. does the vindman -- biden administration now believes the defund the police movement was a mistake and officers do belong in schools? sec. cardona: i have never mentioned anything about defunding the police. rep. miller: sir, for two years the democrats have supported defunding the police because of their defund the police movement school resource officers have been removed from schools. minneapolis, portland, denver, seattle school districts removed police from school. so, i want to know, do you now say it was a mistake and that officers do belong in schools? sec. cardona: as a formers us -- former assistant that had schooled his -- school resource officers i worked really closely with, we found their degree -- there to be great value there. as i said earlier, i have never commented to defund the police. rep. miller: but the democrats definitely supported defunding the pleas for two years. they painted on the sidewalks of burning cities. they shouted it while burning down police stations in minneapolis. vice harris -- vice president harris herself raised money to bail out the rioters and your favorite tv stations have covered it all. you represent the biden administration. has the biden administration changed their stance? do they still support defunding the police? or, do they now say school resource officers belong in schools. sec. cardona: i am not sure if you are present at the state of the union, but the president said we need to fund the police more, not defund the police. rep. miller: i call that hypocrisy. i teach our children that what you do is more important than what you say. i will assume you are saying that you still support defunding the police, the biden administration and you do not support having resource officers in our schools. moving on, mr. secretary, this week, outrageously, it was revealed that the national school board association wanted the biden administration to use the military, the military, to prevent parents from attending school board meetings to speak out in opposition to the biden education agenda. do you believe that president biden should use the military or the fbi domestic terrorism unit to stop people from opposing his policies at school board meetings? sec. cardona: i believe we should fund a police with adequate support. please don't mischaracterize my responses, that i felt were clear. rep. miller: are you saying that the biden administration has changed their stance and they now support funding the police and if they have changed their stance and they do support putting police officers in the schools? i am glad you have changed your mind. because, we all want our children safe. thank you. sec. cardona: yes, we do. rep. miller: like i say, hypocrisy is when the actions do not follow up with the words. my next question has to do with this past week. the national school board association now has revealed they want the biden administration to use the military to prevent parents from attending school board meetings. do you believe that president biden should use the military or the fbi domestic terrorism unit to prevent parents from opposing his policies at school board meetings? sec. cardona: parents should have access to school board meetings and their voice does matter. if you have questions for the department of justice, direct them towards the department of justice. rep. miller: the biden administration did send a memo authorizing the fbi to go off -- after parents showing up at school board meetings. do you support or not support using the fbi against parents? sec. cardona: i support parents having their voices heard, especially during this pandemic when they know their children better than anyone else. that is what everyone at this department supports. you can tell by the fact we have listened to over 8000 parents and will continue to do so. rep. miller: we all know the whole point of that doj memo was to send a message to parents to scare them from showing up. wasn't at the point? then what was the point of the memo? sec. cardona: you would have to ask the doj. we welcome parents more now than ever. rep. miller: you also said parents should not be the primary stakeholder in children to education. -- children's education. every time you have appeared before the committee i have asked you questions about parents rights in education because the biden administration is launching a coordinated assault against parents rights and the ability of parents to make the best educational decisions for their children. we saw the results of your woke educational agenda in virginia where parents were outraged either biden ministration policies and loudly stood up for parental rights. i have to say i look forward to parents across the country sending you the same message very soon. i yield back. chair scott: we will now take a 10 minute break. put 10 minutes on the clock. thank you. >> members of the house education and labor committee are taking a break in the hearing with education secretary miguel cardona testifying today on the recent texas school shooting, president biden's 2020's -- and president biden's 2020 three budget request. we expect the hearing to resume shortly. until then, a look at earlier testimony from the education secretary. >> 19 children and two educators were gunned down in an elementary school in texas. this is regrettably a common occurrence in the country. we have had 27 school shootings already this year alone. a lot of failed to act. prevent another one from happening. today, i call on each of the members of community to protect schools from gun violence. e and to ensure the recent tragedy will be the last . now for a moment of silence. thank you. thank you for being with us today. we look forward to hearing your testimony on how you can help students recover from this pandemic and succeed. the safe reopening of america's public schools would not be possible without the american plan. this funding was distributed using the title 18 formula, so the greatest resources went to the communities with needed. making sure they have more transportation. to hire counselors and nurses during the pandemic. so, to open safely they needed to resources and the congressional plan to provide the resources so the schools can open safely. and hiring staff to assist. i chief gaps, everyone knows were exacerbated during the pandemic. school districts across the country have extended school days across the country and programs. we have been also been using the funding to provide programs to prepare for the economy. elementary school students were programming robots. this is an example of how it can create new opportunities in schools to help all students succeed. not all students have had the support they need to reach their full potential. others based disproportional actions at higher rates. there it is a lack of -- is a lack of accountability. there is an additional step and we are looking forward to seeing a new title ix rule that has full protections from sexual discrimination and if that can be done without violating the process for the accused. over the past few decades it has begun increasingly clear, students are taking out a lot more loans than in the past. our student loan system must be approved. the administration is -- has taken steps to forgive more than $17 billion in debt. since the beginning of the pandemic, we have ensured the federal reserve student loans -- were making payments on their loans and were interested on them. also temporary changes to expand access to the loan forgiveness program during the pandemic. 113,000 loans to this program. this includes that forgiveness -- debt forgiveness. the biden administration is taking historic steps to get us back on the track. however, there is more to be done. we will continue to help every student for a higher education. we need to make sure that we significantly increase the pell grant to its historic value. or significantly reduce interest on loans. make the interest place programs more generous, the job training programs as well as college courses. that is just the beginning to make sure college is accessible to all. thank you mr. secretary. i am now pleased to recognize the ranking member of making her opening statements. >> thank you. good morning. it is good to see you. i know there are no words to describe the tragedy that happened at rob elementary school. we as a nation are devastated other loss of so many precious lives. my prayers are with the fellow students, fellow colleagues of the community of uvalde, texas. the investigation continues. mr. chairman, as i said before, we stand ready to work with you under our jurisdiction with our formal schools and communities to prevent these tragedies from occurring. we will keep uvalde in our prayers. i wish this was going to be a hearing for examples of us working together. that is not the case. student loan forgiveness is already well underway. in a letter sent in october i criticize the department into open ended loan forgiveness. this isn't the only vehicle this administration has used. according to the department, that means potential student loan balances for more than n $4 million appeared . at the administration as right on one thing. the program is broken. >> thank you so much mr. chairman for holding this important meeting. before i get to my questions, thank you secretary for being with us today. before i get to my questions, i want to mention how impressive your stellar career has been in education mr. secretary. you are a teacher in our schools. you taught the youngest and more vulnerable among us. you have been a school administrator. have been a district superintendent. you have been commissioner of education. now you sit here as the secretary of education. your career has been stellar. you have served our kids admirably. you are one of the only state leaders to open schools safely. i want to thank you for that. even prior to the full american rescue plan you open schools safely. thank you for your stellar service and stellar career. i just want to pension that. mr. secretary i wanted to ask a question about gun reform. the democrats have passed, since gun reform in the house over many years. gun reforme continues to be advised in the senate. could you speak briefly on gun reforms which will keep assault rifles out of the hands who are most dangerous. how does that help decrease the amount of mass shootings and keep children alive in our schools across the country. thank you for the remarks earlier. chair scott: we should be the safest country in the world. in order to protect our students there is no easy answer. we need to work together on it. a recent poll found that over 80% of the vote in our country is some level of a red flag provision. in 1% of americans -- 81% of americans support background checks. both sides agree that common sense actions are needed now. we are becoming desensitized. as of the beginning, we cannot. we need to do better. >> 100%. as a formal educator myself, i know you are grieving today for the 21 lives that were lost in texas the other day. i know you still grieve for what happened in sandy hook. you grieved on columbine and virginia tech, the 3600 56 school shootings that have happened since sandy hook. i want to thank you for your service. i have another question about student debt. as you know, american borrowers across the country hold more than 1.7 trillion in student debt. i speak with constituents in my district. it is our young people, elders, are here still trying to pay off student debt. they paid back far more than they ever borrowed because of compounding interest. this that needs to be canceled. it is predatory and it is crushing. looking forward, we absolutely need to have free public housing, free community college in my opinion. we also need to start by canceling student debt which is profited off of americans far too long. two quick questions. i would like to get more clarity on the student debt. how much of the 1.7 trillion is made up of the principal balance ? how much is accrued interest? the second question, how many people are paying more than they originally borrowed but still have a student debt balance because of interest. chair. scott: thank you for the question. we have to make sure. we have to make sure we are not there in five years. those two questions are specific. i do not want to guess right now a number. i will follow up on those questions. i think your point is well-made. there are people who are not just paying interest. it is the principal. that is on the separable. we have to do better with that . i agree with you 200%. >> thank. i yield back. >> next we will hear from the gentleman in wisconsin, mr. fitzgerald. >> thank you mr. secretary for being with us. i think the last time we visited has been, some discussion on the student loan issue. i kind of wanted to go back to that. there's a couple of things. i think i am here for my constituents on that front. i am not sure of the department has gathered data on. i just listened. what i'm hearing is, the one thing that is out there that is probably not being addressed is, it is kind of a nuance. it is the loans. it appears that many families in america has have this informal arrangement between the parent and the student. where the student approaches the parent and says, is there anyway you can pay off the debt on this tuition bill. then informally says do not worry about mom, or dad, when it comes down to it, i will make the payments myself. it is kind of this informal arrangement. i have no idea if you have any numbers on that. or if that is even tracked. who is actually willing to check every month to pay off some of these loans? chair scott: thank you for the question. as a parent who is now thinking about that, my own son, i recognize that many parents throughout the country are wondering. i am sure that you are as well. i do not have specific information on that. i will not want to dare to make a statement without having someone from a higher team discuss. if the parent is writing the check, what happens if the student qualifies for certain loan forgiveness. at think it is a very valid question. i want to make sure give you the right information. >> that leads to the second part of my question. as you do the expanded esl f, and absolutely would be something that i would hope that the department would somehow be able to consider if there is some type of final calculation. that is without even making any judgments on how much forgiveness should there be art should there be forgiveness at all. it is not news to you i do not think. the only thing i heard quite a bit when you talk about this issue is people are frustrated by the interest rate. and if there was some way of bringing the interest rate down. i understand that is an act of congress. certainly, that would have just a dramatic impact on the overall situation nationwide. as some forgiveness would be a part of eslf. let me shift gears real quick appeared as a member of the small business committee, one of the things we are reminded of all the time is ppp loans. it is determined to be successful. ppp loans saved many small businesses throughout the nation. the same part i would say is, we are hearing from districts about some of the covid relief funds and whether it was a part of the cares act. how are you guys doing on tracking that and making sure that districts -- you know because you hear these stories out there that the money was misspent or misallocated. i know in number of small businesses, we are having a hard time checking how the funds were spent. then the sba loans that have been made, some of those are a result of fraud and abuse is a. significant. but if why would ask other departments on tracking some of those funds. >> thank you. i remember the commissioner having conversation about ppp and how to make sure it is being used in the investigation. but that experience, we wanted to make sure that we are putting in checks and balances. we have a robust system. every district has to submit a plan publicly. we have quarterly monitoring reviews. we created a program called arp path. it is not only accountability on us, but more important to parents of students in the community. we do annual reporting. we are working closely with the inspector general and auditors to make sure they have all of the information they need as they do their investigation as well. >> thank you. i yield back. chaair.scott: chairman from wisconsin. >> thank you, mr. chair. i also want to thank you to representative fitzgerald. they way he asked questions was great. it was not open mic night. hey, thank you. you did wisconsin proud. i just wanted to point that out. i know a few people have said they have no words for what happened in texas. i do. these institutions have been afraid of the gun manufacturers in the nra that are killing our kids that we are supposed to protect in our schools. i am more outraged. thank you for that. i want to ask you if i can get to two areas. we had a special hearing yesterday talking about teacher shortages. i believe in your opening remark he said 150 million that might go to attracting teachers. we had great suggestions. community schools to provide services to teach grants. could you give us a little bit of a deep dive of what you are doing? in wisconsin we had a significant drop off of school education post some actions that happen in the legislature. which has been one of the most attractive districts for people, sometimes they are getting two or three applications. we got a little problem here. districts would love to hear what you're doing. >> thank you for acknowledging that. we really need to honor legislators and making sure we are listening to them. teacher salary, working conditions, teacher's voice does matter. that is what is going to bring teachers into the profession. i am really proud that the budget proposal includes the $50 million to improve teacher retention. i really want to see because -- . to increase the diversity in the teacher profession. we want to make sure all students benefit when they are instructed by teachers from different backgrounds. it includes additional teachers and homeless students. i am really proud of this proposal and commitment. thank you. >> just from respect from personal experience, whatever we can do to lift up the profession is needed right now. the other issue, the pell grant these. fees. if were talking about that our tuition was $500 a semester. it is not $500 anymore. i came from a low income family so i had a pell grant. i worked throughout. i never took a spring break because i had to work so i could pay from school. i think the increase in college is really significant. can you talk about that as a goal that i know many of us is trying to get to which is a doubling pell speared >> we know college affordability is a runaway train. we are trying to put brakes on that. to make sure that there is a great return investment. i am thankful we have partners in the high grad filled who are working with us. that is really good. pell is the best opportunity to make education accessible to most students. you're absolutely right. in 1979, pell was 80% of the public institution. today that number is 30%. it was 100% in community colleges. today it is at 52%. it is not enough. we are thankful that we are able to look at pell as the equalizer. we strongly encourage support from pal. ell. it is really building the plane ying field. it is really not one without the other. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you secretary cardona. we have spoken a couple of times about the case. mr. chairman? >> no objection. [inaudible] there has been an uptick. how is this not education? is it ok for a university? to engage applicants as a individual? . >> thank you for that. we are firmly in support of providing opportunities and fighting against this termination. i know we have a staff looking into that specific issue. i will be happy to have my staff follow up with where we are on that. and the investigation we have. >> how would he score me on my likability and traits if you will not give me a list where you have the answers in? >> i understand the line of questioning and i understand why you're asking it. i will have my staff look into it. i do appreciate your advocacy. the new gray if students have been -- do you agree if students would have been scored on personality traits? >> no. it should be very clear how the decisions are being made. that is important. those are decisions that have to be looked at 21 parents are deciding schools. -- at two when parents are deciding schools. why are your intentions to limit trade by proposing --. >> we do support high-quality schools, neighborhood schools, charter schools that are serving children. i said this before. i see great examples of them, i highlighted great examples of them. i do believe the proposals are reasonable. we want to make sure they are across the board, not just with public charters but all schools. we know that in many places, our charter schools are places of innovation. we would encourage connection between our charter schools and neighborhood schools. it is not a requirement. we are listening to the feedback we have and we are taking that in to account when we move forward. >> i yield back my time. you can ask your question are get a response in the next couple of seconds. >> i will yield back. >> thank you. >> mr. chairman. kenny hear me ok? -- can you hear me ok. k? i want to ask the secretary a question about -- but it's going to be provided for -- i know our efforts are to make students proficient in english as quickly as possible. but if they want to be competitive, we must also allow bilingual and -- allow bilingual . i am wondering what steps are you making to get there? >> i agree. the resource -- research shows when students are bilingual they have more opportunities in the learning increases. we have the proposal of $1 billion request for fiscal year 2023. actually it could be more. looking at language is a asset is critical. if we are going to be competitive internationally, being bilingual is a starting point. in other countries students are multilingual, bilingual. >> my last question. to complete and accurate data for title i for the flint recipients? >> thank you. we are working closely to make sure we are engaging with our stakeholders. our recipients of grants. we will continue to do that moving forward. i will follow-up with your office if there is any other questions. oversight of the funds is critical. >> thank you you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary. >> gentlemen, yield back? gentlemen yields back. the other gentleman that we have, mr. jacobs. >> thank you for being here to talk about the important issues for our children throughout the united states. i wanted to ask a couple of questions. 4307 of the elementary secretary education that wasn't reported into the parliament, teachers and other individuals involved, the operation of charter schools. we are in the charter school community and i was taught to identify any members of the community who have consulted this rule change. could you tell me, how might the process comply to the 4307? which specific individuals or we have reached out to? >> thank you for the question. we recognize there is some concerns about the proposal from some of the charter communities. we can ensure you that the process and taken feedback and comments. it was the open commentary that winter our proposals. because i do not have the specific information with me, i will have our team follow through and who we have received comments from. >> thank you. in regards to the rule itself, one of the proposals in that rule, the fact that we give the yield power, it overturns traditional public school districts that are requiring a memorandum in with understanding. i can tell you that the public school system works with us. i do not think they would choose to if they have to. they are very comfortable being a monopoly. i think this is really tripping hand to the traditional school district and trying to provide children and families who are desperate for high-quality. it was a reasonable proposal. i just beg the differ that it is not reasonable. it backs away my mind in crushing innovation of charter schools. >> i would like to comment on that. is that ok? i appreciate your perspective. that is number one. i think there is a lot of misinformation out there. that is why it is so important to communicate that these were proposals, they are not rules yet. i hear what you are saying. i understand. some community schools, some are not. maybe it is why the partnership will not happen. they be the school will not want to. we do not want to hold that against our charters. it was the encouragement. again, these are proposals we have completed. >> i do believe the challenge in innovation that came out in the charter school movement is actually improved at the buffalo schools. we have collaborated appeared a sign on and requirement that there is no vacancies in the public school systems. anyway, thank you for your time. i yield back. >> thank you. i agree with you on your last point. >> i recognize myself for five minutes. mr. secretary, we had a suggestion that democrats support the defund the police. it just for the record, i would like to point out that the i am not aware of any democrats who support define the police. a handful of members apparently do support that. the suggestion with democrats supporting defund the police is not accurate. let me ask you a question on why the elementary school, school resource officers were assigned to rob elementary. are you aware? >> there are reports of whether or not officers were present. the evidence i seen from the school resources officers are, whether the value they have could be provided by counselors. if you could provide for the record, a study that shows the effectiveness of school officers , i would like to see it. the other is, there's a little uncertainty in vouchers and private school charters. did you say whether or not you support private school vouchers or private charters? >> thank you for this opportunity. without question, as a parent, -- for example, technical high school. those were public high school options i had. i do not support the federal dollars for public school programs. the only way a parent would want to choose a neighborhood school. i do believe choices within the public school options are healthy for families. >> thank you. are you aware of the school board members? >> i am not aware of any threats to the school board members. i have seen examples of that over the last year. >> can you say what your budget does for technical education? >> i can do so. i will talk about the budget proposal, which is a $8 million increase. this has to be a big part of how we reimage schools. career technical education has often been pushed aside. it has a robust mentality. we need to change the culture and create a better pathway of our school. this is a bipartisan issue. every state that i have visited is working on it. we want to make sure that states have access to great programs, funding to make sure that the connections would be -- employers are there and we can support good career technical education in our schools. >> can we say a word about how important it is for states and districts to collect data so we can know which students to help and how we can deal with these gaps? >> data collection after the pandemic is important. we know everyone was affected by the pandemic, but not everyone was affected equally. in order for us to utilize the resources, we have to know which students were impacted the greatest. we need to make sure we are addressing the inequities that were made worse during the pandemic. not only student outcomes and achievement, but also their ability to learn from are they coming to school, do they have any other issues at home, are they in need of support additionally from academic. >> that data is required under the -- what are you doing to deal with the fact that the public schools now are segregated now as they were in the 1960's? >> where promoting and supporting programs that are aimed at removing those racial barriers between schools, promoting cro-magnet programs. we are going to continue to do that. we recognize that we work from our stakeholders who are not education stakeholders. students that are invested in a diverse community. it is really important that we promote that. thank you. my time is expired. >> materials must address the subject matter of the hearing. please submit materials by emailing submissions. i want to thank mr. secretary for participating. >> mr. chairman, do you have closing statements? >> yes. i want to thank the secretary for participation today. we ask that you please respond to those questions in writing. the record will be held for 14 days in order to receive responses. all discussions of the hearing must be cemented to the majority hearing staff within seven days -- submitted to the majority hearing staff within seven days. i now recognize the ranking member for the closing statement. >> thank you, mr. chair. i appreciate the secretary being here today. i appreciated his comments about organizing the schools to a clear path. he and i have spoken several times about his background. the fact that he has a technical background gives him great background for what he has done, what he could do as the secretary. i appreciate that very much. if we are going to reimagine schools that way, i think there is some comfort to parents. if your reimagining schools in other ways come i think that is a great concern. one way i am concerned about the possibility of reimagining schools, is what might happen to title ix. we did not talk much about title ix appeared ethic mr. secretary, you know thi -- title ix. i know mr. secretary. medical procedures without any type of parental agreement. that is one of the ways you can reimagine schools and what the schools are doing. i'm going to ask you to commit. ask you to commit on the committee on any proposal that you put forward on title ix to reassure us that this is not one of the ways you're going to be reimagining the schools. mr. secretary. i was very interested in the way you talk about -- talked about having honesty and transparency coming from colleges and universities and from charter schools. you have asked us work with you. mr. secretary, we want that honesty and transparency from the department and accountability. but what we see happening, is that the department is pushing through a shifting of responsibility from the person who took out the loan for college to hard-working taxpayer who did not even get an advantage of even attempting to get a degree. it is a good question about who you think should be paying for those college debts. we never got an answer from you. the term forgiveness is just a just pushing off from the person who has seen the debt to taxpayers appeare that is what -- taxpayers. let's call a spade a spade here. forgiveness means you do not pay back a loan. the government forgives the loan. let's be a supporter of accountability and transparency everywhere. not just for certain segments of education, but for all segments of education. most importantly, we need transparency and accountability from the department of education. we are not getting that right now. we are having to turn to agencies to get information you already have in your possession. he refused to give us. -- but you refuse to give us . i think you have the ability of being -- the secretary of anyone in the position. however, i do not think you are living up to the potential. in may be you do not have the authority to do what you need to do. you are in the position. you should be held accountable for providing the information from the people who report to you. we want to work with you mr. secretary, i told you that from the very beginning. i cannot work with somebody who hides what it is. i look to see the issue of truths and silence. i do not know where this quote came from. i will find it. i am not big on sources. the name of the person is nash. the truth is a place but silen ce is a lie. we cannot trust we are getting the information that we should be getting in our role in oversight. when we get silence back, our assumption is that we are not giving information because that is something you are hiding. we need that feeling. give us the information that you have, so that we do not believe that silence means there is a lie or something you want to hide. that should not happen in our government. the public has been more distrustful of our government. it is not healthy for the public. we want you to help us keep that distrust from occurring. thank you, mr. chairman for allowing me to make the statements. i look forward to getting the information from the secretary. god bless you. >> i want to thank you again mr. secretary for being with us today. we reflected on the administrations work to expand access to high-quality education . the department of education has helped reopen schools to in person learning safely. it helped address disparity and it to ensure our student loan program can deliver. department of education has taken the right steps to get us on the right track. there is a lot more that need to be done in the future. mr. secretary, i look forward to welcoming you as we deliver on the reform of education and ensure every student in america can reach the potential. thank you for your time. once again, we look forward to working with you. the committee now stands adjourned. >> a life picture this afternoon from the white house briefing room where white house secretary will start today's briefing. it started a little late today. it will get underway around 3 p.m. eastern. we will have live coverage. while we wait, "washington journal". [inaudible] >> live picture from the white house briefing room. it will start at 4 p.m. eastern. in the meantime, we will show you a portion of today's "washington journal". >> we welcome to the program nick of united america. he served as the executive director talking about political devise in the united states. what you think of the main source of political devise as we see it today? >> whitten to focus on what or who gets elected. guest: we do not talk about how they get elected and the reasons that are pulling our country apart. how the primaries are designed to push each primary. it is creating a structure in washington where our leaders are not incentivized bar problems, they are incentivized by their base. until we fix this at a systemic level, we are only going to see politics get more divided. host: if it is a system problem, are there examples you are seeing in the current field that are illustrating the vision that you see? guest: absolutely. we have seen 137 r houseaces. of , 125 art decided already. the primary is the only election that matters. furthermore, it is the only voters who are casting ballots in that particular district are receiving a very low turnout. the vast majority of our members of congress. that small number is not representative of the electorate as a whole. we see far left and far right candidates getting elected who do not represent, not just the american people, they do not represent their own party. we have seen whether it was david mckinley in west virginia, losing the primary tumor extreme candidates because -- primary because of external candidates. that is incentive system that we got to change. there are real solutions out there there are being adopted at the state level. host: such as what? building republican parties to signal nonpartisan primaries. four states have already done that. the latest is alaska. what that means is, all of the candidates and the voters get to participate in a single nonpartisan primary. the top four expenditures will go to the general election. in the general election, voters have the option to ranking them according to reference. whoever gets the majority of the vote then wins. the impact that that has, it gives more voice toys to the voters. the candidates are incentivized. if they are elected, there incentives is not to put country over party and to put public interest over special interest. that was what was adopted in alaska. it is being implemented for the first time this year. we are excited to see how it goes. host: is that how you describe it then, ranked choice voting? guest: there's two parts of this reform. in combination with each other, they can be transformative for the political system. host: if everybody runs the same ticket, does that spirit from recognition and people have more resources versus others? guest: it does not change the fundamental of what you need to do as a campaign. no longer it is just eaten person who will turn out of your parties primary, -- >> your organization, how did you found it and how is it funded? >> the organization was founded by a dartmouth professor. i joined the board shortly after i ran for congress as an independent candidate because my lesson from the campaign was unless we change our elections, we are going to be stuck with a two-party system that is not representative of most americans. we attracted support from a cross-partisan community who may not agree with each other on everything, but they agree we have to defend and improve micro-see. that is the common ground at a fundamental level and a staff level. i work with an amazing group of people who are political operatives and pragmatists from both political parties, libertarian, independent, who share that the political system ought to represent the people and we ought to have a system that puts voters first. that is the work we do every day. >> catherine murdoch, who is she? >> catherine is one of our cochairs along with an entrepreneurial named mark. both of them have seen how the system in washington prevents problem-solving, whether it is on the budget, national debt or the climate. and we are not going to be able to make progress until we change the system. that is what has attracted leaders such as catherine, mark and others. >> she's connected to the murdoch family of fox news? whacks yes. >> -- quacks -- >> -- we don't even give them a book when it comes to primary said there are 10 states where if you are an unaffiliated voter, you cannot cast a ballot and perhaps -- in perhaps the only election that matters. we don't really talk about that a lot. we hear a lot about voter fraud or suppression, but 10 million americans are disenfranchised in the system, including in my home state of pennsylvania, which just held primary, over one million voters had no say. but there is a group called better ballot pennsylvania started by the community of 70 and it is one of the early five campaigns we are supporting that can make a difference right now through legislative and ballot campaigns that there's a growing movement of reformers hell-bent on changing the rules blocking out a lot of voters from the system. host: as far as your organization on the state-by-state level, what activities are involved in making or advocating for these changes? guest: we consider the primary process the biggest solvable problem in america today and it is solvable because it does not require a constitutional amendment or act of congress. the constitution says the time, place, and manner of our elections are up to the state. so at the state level, either , through the legislature or in half the states that allow it to the ballot initiative process, we can change how we elect our leaders. and our country has a long and proud history of doing that. if you walked into a voting booth 120 years ago, that is if you were a white male over 21 at the time of course, there was no secret ballot. you did not cast a vote for a senator, because that was elected by state legislatures, and there were no primaries either because parties were choosing the candidates. so we have radically changed the , system over time. and we should not take for granted the way it is today is the way it always has to be. so that is the work this new , modern reform movement is doing is updating our democracy , for the 21st century. the role unite america is playing is to support the grassroots group and state organizations all across the country who are working on meaningful reform, not because they advantage one party or the other, other but because they put more power into the hands of voters. host: unite america's nick troiano joining us for this conversation. we start with our independent line. this is from reston, virginia, from greg. you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: good morning. these ideas seem great to the public and to the listeners, but i'm guessing they don't seem great to the incumbents who really have no incentive to change the system that put them in office. so, what is the formula, or what kind of state are these ideas most amenable to, or where did they find fertile ground? you mentioned only four states adopted them. thanks. host: you hit the nail in the -- nick: you hit the nail in the head. i think the only thing both parties can agree on is there should not be new competition and they like a system where they can have a 20% approval rating but 90% of them wind up , getting reelected. so, there is two pathways to reform, one is in half the states we can go around the legislatures, directly to the people through ballot initiatives to adopt these reforms. and the other is a legislative pathway which is building , political power in a movement to be a special interest for the public interest to support candidates who support these reforms. they do exist out there. and to encourage people to run for office on these ideas and to be able to mobilize advocacy in state legislatures. we have seen meaningful andwe have seen meaningful progress. the states of colorado and virginia and utah all passed legislation within the last year to start experimenting with ideas like rain choice voting at the local level. so, it might be more incremental and it might take more time but , there is a pathway as well by convincing leaders that they too, though they got elected through this system. what was the reason why they really ran for office in the first place? are things really getting done that motivated them to be in public life? if not, maybe it is time we look at some of these rules. host: in new york, republican line, we will hear from jim. caller: hi, good morning, everybody. i have a different thought. you talk about the far left in far right, but the truth of the matter is, those who are considered far right now are ones who had mainstream ideas about 20 years ago. what has moved is not the far left and far right, what has moved to society and i believe we have left our spiritual moorings and drifted to the left. the way sometimes people like marjorie taylor greene, i believe her views are mainstream would have been 20 years ago, maybe the way they come across, but to be honest with you, the democratic party has nothing that i want to compromise with. they are to be defeated, not compromised with. it is because they have just drifted so far away. but i would say it is more society has drifted away than the far left or far right. i just wonder your comments. ,nick: my view is we live in a very diverse country, over 300 million people. we are not all going to agree on the issues and that is sort of , the point of why politics exist. we have a congress that is supposed to be narrowing our differences to solve problems. and it is doing the opposite right now. it is exaggerating them and further polarizing them. it is because we have leaders who are not being elected with majority support from their districts. you mentioned marjorie taylor greene, she was elected in her first primary with just 8% of the vote in her district. or you look at representative alexander casio cortez. she received 15,000 votes in a district that has over three quarters of a million people, to first be elected to congress. there is nothing wrong about having a congress of people with varying political opinion across the spectrum, but we should have a congress that actually gets thereby receiving a majority support from the people that representative -- that they represent and that is not the system we have. host: we are currently having a debate over guns in congress because of the last few days. we have been having a debate over abortion over the last few weeks after the political story came out. what you think those examples teach us about the current state of congress when dealing with big issues that are polarizing people? nick: i think congress is unequipped to have a conversation that most americans can with each other, which is how do we balance multiple interests. how do we take into account multiple viewpoints and find where common ground exists? believe it or not, even on deeply polarizing issues from guns to abortion, that space exists. congress is not designed to have that conversation right now. karine: we have made tremendous progress in the fight against covid. we have moved quickly to ensure paxlovid, the antiviral bill that reduces hospitalization and death biome is 90% is widely available. importantly, because of all the important work the biden administration has done on boosters, treatments and more,

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