The number in the United States is twice as many as any other country. And doctor Francis Collins who once led the human genome project and now leaves the National Institutes of health needs a competitive shark tank enterprise at the nih to discover new ways to create tens of millions of quick and extensive diagnostictests. Covid19 plans should last for at least a year. The government is pursuing vaccines at what it calls s work speed a, faster than weve ever done that before but no one expects a vaccine this august. The second half of the school year schools should be able to provide more tests, more treatments, better Contact Tracing and hopefully we should begin to have vaccines. It will likely be the fall of 2021 though before we begin toapproach normal. There are several reasons schools have an advantage in weproviding a safe environment for students and for faculty. One younger people have been less hurt by covid19 and older people. Although doctor county told our committee we should be careful about cavalier assuming that young people are not at some risk. Second, schools are generally small communities that are closely supervised and monitored. Third, outbreaks can be traced. That childs classmates can be tested and forth, individual schools and close to control the spread of the virus while other schools are ableto remain open. Schools are not unfamiliar with outbreaks of flu for example or other illnesses that have resulted in temporary closure of individual schools for while other schools continue to be open. Student environments pose challenges as well. First theres not as much extra space in our elementary andsecondary schools. As there , is on most college campuses. And that makes social distancing more difficult. Second School Administrators face more rigid rules as a result of state and local and union rules and regulations so making changes to the academic calendar and the class size and to School Schedules will be more difficult. Third, creating a mass wearing culture will be hard especially with the youngest children. Seeing facial expressions is also important for Young Children. They learn to socialize and self regulate soobscuring faces with masks prohibits learning forelementary school age children. Rigorous hygiene isnt always easy for children. Children go home at night potentially exposing other adults and six, even systematic testing of 50 million children or 55 million children is a lot of tests. Today nine out of 10 families with children have at least one parent employed and among married parents with families with children, two thirds have both parents employed according to the bureau of labor statistics and many children live in an environment where school is the safest place they will be in all day andits also the place where almost 30 Million Students receive a school lunch. One in 70 percent of the ecstudents qualify for free or reducedprice meals. Administrators have a responsibility to make our school among the safest communities in our country this fall and in doing so will help our country move back towards normalcy. Senator murray. Thank you very much mister chairman and i appreciate all of our witnesses being with us today as well. As always thank you to our Committee Staff who worked extra hard today to make this hearing possible so we could be safe andsocially distanced. Before we begin i want to say again inspired i am by the young people protecting against Police Brutality and systemic racism nationwide. They are calling for change and accountability and justice and i hope their urgency and resolve would be an example to all ofus here in congress. We are here today to discuss Something Else this country owes all young people and children and that is a quality Public Educationeven in the middle of a global pandemic. Covid19 as upended schools in ways that are truly unprecedented , creating chaos for educators and support staff, parentslyand of course our students. As this crisis was first hitting my home state of washington, i got a text from my daughter telling me the North Shore School district had closed becauseof the ugcoronavirus outbreak. Why daughter didnt know whatto do or what that meant. She was still working or what that meant to their learning and even if the United States en senator i didnt have any answers for her and it wasnt long before nearly every School District , every educator , every parent and every student in this country had many of the same questions o. Challenges schools and families across this country have had to overcome this past school year were unimaginable a matter of months ago. T cSchool Districts are now facing some of the biggest tests to state and local revenue that we have seen in a long time both facing increased costs as the result of this pandemic. And it is especially important to recognize that while this hasnt been easy for anyone, School Districts, communities and families with more resources have had more capacity to adapt than those who had less. So if we talk about ways to reopen our schools safely for students and educators and school staff, our response must not only ensure Public Health and science driving decisionmaking but also ensure every child can access a high quality Public Education during this pandemic whether in person or online. We know covid19 is having a disproportionate impact on the health of black communities and communities of color and research is salready showing how it has exacerbated the inequities that exist within our Education Systemfor this pandemic starts. We project that black students could lose over 10 months of learning, latino students could lose over nine months of learning compared to white students who are projected to lose six months of learning. Because of this, estimates show achievement gaps could grow by 15 to 20 percent in this country. We cant let covid19 continue to make things worse when it comes to the education of students of color and the same goes for students from families with low incomes. Or hq i students advancing homelessness, students in foster care, students with disabilities. So when it comes to reopening buildings safely, as ive said before and cannot say enough, pools and School Districts must follow the advice of local Public Officials and let science drive decisionmaking. At aminimum , public experts say before reopening classrooms states should be able to provide widespread testing and Contact Tracing to follow up in every single case of the virus. The federal government should also start planning now for the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine which will be critical for erschools ultimately returning to normal. But until we have a safe and effective vaccine, im glad to see some dates and School Leaders engaged in detail scenario planning because before families send their children back to the classroom and educators returned to teach they need to know if the schools have fought through every possible scenario. And given how much we dont know about how children transmit this disease we need to look at it how states are hermetically vulnerable to send their kids back to school. There are countless questions we will have to answer before they can physically open safely but for School Districts and schools cant do this alone. They need indepth actionable guidance from the federal government on best practices and to ensure the safety of students, educators, school staff and the broader community. They will need Additional Resources to measure the learning loss of students, to implement Public Health protocols to protect students and staff and a dramatic decline in stateand local revenue. Whether schools are able to open physically , or use a hybrid of both we have to ensure School Districts deliver quality and equitable Educational Social emotional and health. And they have to address the ways this virus has exacerbated inequities that have long existed within our Education System. I recently heard from a and mom in washington who told me her children are sharing one iphone to learn and shes not even sure if shes going to be able to afford that phone bill and thats just one smallexample of this Digital Divide. For School Districts that are under resourced or in areas where they dont have Internet Access, learning may consist of afew links of online material. Over 1 and a half Million Students are experiencing homelessness and finding transportation to pick up school meals is not always an option area and for students across the country experiencing trauma and stress, from this pandemic or reckoning with centuries long races and its been never more important to ensure every child has access to Mental Health and trauma support, particularly students from communities bearing the brunt of this virus and those affected by Police Brutality and systemic racism and when it comes to delivering these, we have to be better because if we dont the achievement gap that we strive so hard to close will undoubtedly widen and we cant let that happen. To address all these problems we need a massive investment in our schools right now. We need consideration of teachers to estimate that hschools will need billions more on top of what we already know is needed for basic things like cleaning supplies and ppe. And we also know thanks to the work of the National Education association without the gnificant investment us would lose approximately 1. 9 million education jobs. We could have begun negotiations on this and countless other priorities but its not happened yet and im going to continue to push for action and i also want to note that while im glad we have the opportunity to hear from these witnesses today, we do need to hear from secretary of education otbetsy devos, especially about her efforts to push a privatization agenda in the k12 system and her flawed interpretation of the Equitable Services provision in the care zach. As we all know k12 Public Schools are a bedrock of our community and each of our fears and the pudepartment of education need to be all in on ensuring schools have the resources and support to rise to the massive challenges in front of them that i am and i look forward to that conversation today with mister chairman i would like to ask and sent to include a record of plans from the American Federation of teachers for safely reopening our schools and a letter from ec the National Education association about state and local budget cuts and the need for Additional Resources from the federal government to meet our students needs, thank you. E thank you senator murray for your opening statement. Im pleased to welcome our witnesses to todays hearing focused on getting back to School Safely. First doctor penny schwinn is commissioner of education and the department of education has developed resources for use by local districts including School Closure toolkits, familyfriendly instructional guides for programming on pbs and a School Meal Finder website for families. Doctor schwinn will come be convening a troy covid19 Child Wellbeing task force to support leaders and communities. Our second witness is doctor matthewblomstedt, a nebraska commissioner of education. Hes also been chosen to serve as president elect on the board of directors of the council of chief state school officers. Under his direction the department of education has created a website to suggest several options for districts to consider for ensuring that schools open safely this fall. Thirdly, this is mrs. Suzanne cordova superintendent of denver Public Schools under the leadership of superintendent cordova Public Schools has announced it expects to begin on time in august and has been exploring a variety of options for safely bringing students back to school and ill now turn to senator murray to introduce our fourth witness. Thank you mister chairman and today we are honored to have john kane, former secretary of educationunder president barack obama. In during doctor kings tenure i had the pleasure of working with them to implement the every Student Succeeds at. King has been a steadfast champion for student Public Education and giving every child the opportunity they deserve and im really glad d we have the chance to hear from him today. Before becoming secretary of education mister king served on the department of education and Excellence Commission as acting deputy of secretary of education and new york state education commissioner. He began his career as a High School Social studies teacher and middle school principal. Currently mister king is the president and ceo of the Education Trust at the National Nonprofit that uses advocacy to identify opportunities and achievement gaps from preschool through college. Mister king holds a bachelor of rights from Harvard University and a jv from an a in teaching and a doctorate in education from the teachers collegiate funding university. His life story is a testament to the power of Public Education and the importance of caring educators in a students life so thank you so much doctor king for being here and i look forward to your testimony. Thank you senator murray and welcome again doctor king and we will hear from more witnesses and ask them to summarize their testimony in about five minutes which will leave more time for questions from senators. Lets begin withdoctor schwinn. Good morning chairman alexander, Ranking Member murray and members of the health committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify at todays hearing. This has been an unbelievable period of time in tennessee for families and educators and students must now consider the challenges ahead with reopening school. To be clear, this is complicated. Any decision we make has significant costs. No easy answers or onesizefitsall solutions. But might be best for one is not right for the other and in our state we have a metro region and experience significant spread of the virus and we have a county with itsfirst positive case last week. Ndas we look ahead to School Reopening id like to show the major challenges you are facing in tennessee and nationwide and some of the ways we plan to addressthem. One, health and safety of our school community. Two, breaking the Digital Divide in three , gi highquality academic resources. First, School Reopening must put the healthand safety of our children , their teachers and activities aside and tennessee has been a National Leader when it comes to testing for covid and we will work to coordinate testing e efforts at the district and ensure any School Personnel or any families entering testing out the opportunity to do so. The support districts, the department will work with Agency Partners to put aside pem test thermometers along with a suite of resources to help with planning how to implement healthy processes in our school. But kids are kidsand we need Realistic Solutions for areas like nutrition, flat classroom support and transportation. The apartment is committed to providing resources and working with teachers and kids. There are almost 1 Million Students in Public Schools in the state of tennessee. And we have a poresponsibility to support all of them as if they were ourown. We make promises to families every day that their children will be safe in our care and have access to highquality education. Must do everything we can to keep that promise. Second, we must address the digitaldivide for teachers and students. Districts need 21st Century Technology solutions. Access to devices, access to broadband and professional development for educators. Our own governor often referenced not having internet on his farm thats a reality that is all too true for many students and their teachers. But its especially true for our Rural Communities, our most vulnerable populations and those require assistance teaching and learning from a health perspective. The depar