Transcripts For CSPAN2 Former Education Secretary Duncan Ot

Not immune. This is about two hours. People come to order. Without objection, with recent subcommittee it is time. I recognize myself for an opening statement. On july 11, President Trump tweeted it would be bad for him politically if schools opened before the november election. The threat that he would cut off funding if not reopened. Yesterday he said, and i quote, my view is schools should open. It will go away like things go away and schools should be open. The president position of how to reopen schools to paraphrase the press secretary, for science to stand in the way. I fundamentally disagree. Schools must reopen based on science and safety, not politics and wishful thinking. To agree, though schools are critically important for the children and our families. My first job after i graduated college was as a High School History teacher. My wife was a skilled librarian. I remember the anticipation at the start of school. Two of my grandchildren school age and i know they are feeling the anticipation now. To focus on how to reopen safely to testing. I hoped the administration would implement these measures and the schools to safely reopen in the fall but fortunately, this is not possible in much of the country. The virus is still raging across the because unlike you, we didnt step down in the first place. We cannot make the same mistake with our schools. We need to follow the science. First, children can get the crona virus and pass it onn to others. The president claims that children are, and iil quote, almost immune to this disease, and of quote. But last week, and i quote, children do get infected. We know that, so therefore they are not immune. Evidence has started to pile up at summer camps. Last week, 76 of children at a ymca camp in georgia had the virus. Its been documented in florida, new york, texas, South Carolina, louisiana and some other states. Nationwide more than 338,000 children have tested positive for the virus. Second, the cdc has the key consideration for opening schools as the highest risk of spreading the disease. The cdc director has warned that a virus hotspot may need to be for some amount of time. It was reported last week that 21 are in socalled red zones because they have these rates rising. Reopening schools in these hotspots presents risks. Third even if schools are outside of the red zone, cdc experts and other scientists had urged schools considering reopening to take steps to limit transmission. That includes improving School Ventilation systems, practicing social distancing andd Wearing Masks. S. Our schools faced life or death decisions because of the administrations inexcusable failure to get the virus under control over the last six months. But there are steps the federal government can take for schools to reopen in person and to stay open. Like the doctors told us last week we cant control depend on but Wearing Masks and practicing social distancing. The president needs to follow and promote this expert advice dot denigrate and distract from it. Relevant threats to withhold funding as the resources it needs to get Students Learning remote or in person. We must provide sufficient funding to meet these needs. Ls must also include the funds into heroes act to provide mobile hotspots to students and subsidies to make the internet affordable foril lowincome families. I urge my colleagues to support these investments and our children. Whlook forward to hearing from our witnesses to speak from deep expertise and experience in education. I also invite secretary devos to testify why shes pressing schools to fully reopen despite the risks. I offered to accommodate her schedule, but she refused to appear. I find that hard to understand. Our secretary, devos, that is to lead the nations effort to safely educate our children during this pandemic and she refuses to speak directly to congress and the American People. I will now yield to my friend, the distinguishedhe ranking memr for his opening remarks. Than thank you mr. Chairman. I appreciate you calling this hearing. I do want to mention since the president mentioned a spokesperson to finish the quote was started by the chairman she said the science is on our side here. We encourage the localities and states simply follow the science, open our schools. That is the president s spokesperson on that issue. Last week the nations top official urged the importance for americas children to safely reopen schools for facetoface learning, for Mental Health, physical health and the Public Health of our children. Doctor redfield testified under oath its important to realize that is in the Public Health interest for the students to get back to facetoface learning. There are consequences of the school closure. I do think its important to realize it isnt Public Health versus the economy about the School Reopening. Cdc guidance further adds the harms attributed to close schools on the social, emotional and Behavioral Health and economic wellbeing and academic achievement of children in both the short and long term are well known and significant. Aside from a troubled home, no other setting has more influence on a Childs Health and wellbeing than their school. Doc or fauci said last week School Reopening czar important, but the psychological welfare of children, the fact many children rely on schools for nutrition, breakfast, healthy lunches. At the United Nations general secretary just this week called the situation around the globe, quote, a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential. Mr. Chairman of the overwhelming consent among the Public Health community is the state and development of more than 50 million american children. It is critical to safely reopen schools for an inPerson Learning. Lets get more specific. The federal child abuse prevention and treatment act requires each state to have procedures requiring teachers and other personnel to report known or suspected instances of child abuse and neglect. This came up during last weeks hearing as well. Weve seen the report child abuse dropped by an average of 40 compared to the levels reported during the same period in 2019. That doesnt mean child abuse has stopped or dropped by 40 . It just means its not getting discovered because our teachers were doing such a great job of doing that. Now the children are home with those parents that were abusing them and its not getting htected. Imagine the damage to tens of thousands of our children because of that. The evidence from hospitals strongly suggests child abuse has actually increased during the pandemic. Teachers cant report what they cant see and as a result, thousands of children are being abused in america today. We cannot sit by and make excuses. We need to follow the safety guideline and stand up for those children who are counting on us to take action and do our job. Our children in america need us to do what we know we can do. They dont need excuses. They need us to look at these challenges and recognize how to overcome them and there are roadmaps everywhere from the cdc to the American Academy of pediatrics to so many other organizations. Doctor redfield added last week, quote we are seeing far greater suicides now and we are deaths from covid. More from Drug Overdose then we have from covid. I know we are used to seeing the charts and we mourn every death from covid, but why dont we talk about the other deaths that are happening because people are shopping him, because people ar staying home . We cannot act like we are living in a c vacuum, in silos. When children are not in school, there are devastating things having to do. I understand we want to make sure that we have a safe environment, but we cannot use that as an excuse. We have to figure out how to do it. We cant talk about how hard it is to do. A lot of people do hard work everyday. Every day. People are going to hospitals every day. Going to grocery stores, working on the front lines. They do it because they know everybody else is relying on them. We need to have that new attitude. On the other side of the equation, the cdc advises the best Available Evidence indicates that it poses relatively low risks to school age children, children appear to be the lowest risk for contracting covid19. As of july 17 the United States reported children and adolescents accounted for 7 , and less than 1 of covid19 related deaths. If we focus on the wellbeing of our children, the question really is and should be reopened, the question is why havent we started planning more widespread to reopen safely. All schools can be giving this. Weve seen it even in hot spots and now we see schools that are not in hotspots trying to figure out how not to reopen. Its not like inventing the wheel. Others have figured it out. We need to share that learning experience with everybody. The virus continues to pose a serious threat. They gave us five things every american should do and testified to have a f dramatic impact. I know the chairman talked about thisis as well, Wearing Masks ai know we are all doing. Social distancing, hygiene, being smart about gatherings, staying out of crowded bars and areas. If we do those five things we have done the modeling data. We get the same bang for the buck. We should do all of those things and also encourage states to reopen. We know that they present some challenges. The good news is each one of those challenges can be responsibly addressed. We are not talking about a one size fits all model. Hotspots move around each one can be responsibly addressed. The main concerns are for teachers. Children may not be at great risk for getting sick that they can spread the virus. Teachers at high risk factors, like any other person in a high risk factor anywhere else to go to work knows that there are risks you can help address. Smart School Reopening will ensure that its greatly reduced and the chance of spreading within the school is also medicated. Teachers can be socially distanced by assigning Virtual Learning responsibilities or other new tasks associated with mitigating the risk of spreading covid. Teachers are just 6 feet away when the nearest student come in many are over 10 feet away for the nearest student and they are all Wearing Masks. Many have adopted the guidelines and send them screaming. Every day. Have their own type of safety and their own into their own hands. They can take their temperatures, complete a checklist for symptoms. If the child or Family Member exhibits any of those things, te child should just stay home. While no plan is perfect, cdc and the American Academy of pediatrics have laid out guidelines for safely reopen in americas schools and they address those concerns. The guidelines should be followed by everybody. Once in school, students, faculty and staff should wear masks and have access to easy hand sanitizing beauty thats why we put over 150 million out there for the states, a lot of which by the way he is Still Available and can be used by the schools today. They dont need to wait for congress to pass a new bill. There is over almost 100 billion available to our schools and anybody else who needs it. Temperature checks the students move throughout the building part in required physical distance and all things mentioned. 6 feet or more per desk and many schools are doing platoons. Improves and deletion by opening windows. Many are looking at conducting classes outdoors when possible, increase wiped downs of chairs, equipment, these are guidelines that have been laid out. If someone gets sick and we know what is goinit is going to happa plan in place to follow the recommendations. Weve already laid out how to do thait if these things happen. The School Systems should be wondering what to do in this situation, that should have been planned weeks ago and if they didnt start, planned today. Talk to the others that are opening up next week in my own home state of louisiana we have schools opening in next week and theyve gone through the guidelines and would be happy to share that with anybody that is willing. Washington, d. C. Just announced that their schools will not be open in the fall. Not one child under the age of 18 has died from covid in the entire district of columbia and yet they are shutting down all schools. If they followed all of the guidelines we just listed in considering the devastating damage to these children, how can you justify the harm that you are doing to the hundreds of thousands by shutting down in Person Learning . Those kids arere going to suffer and we all know it. The data and the science is there a. The reports are there about what damage it does to the kids if the schoolofthe schools are not. Education is a local responsibility as we know and each school must adapt to their unique challenges. Thats why th the cbc laid thist in their guidance and it makes it clear a school in a hotspot must be more cautious than a school where transmission is low. Schools can and must develop a plan to resume in Person Learning. Stay us are too high and the ability to dramatically lower the risk to be easily attainable than to have a debate about whether or not it can be done. Of course it can be done, and it is being done in hotspots in places where its not a hotspot, yet its not being done in places where its not a hotspot. In conclusion i want to thank you for holding the hearing and the witnesses that we are about to hear from. Y our teachers have faced a challenge in the spring they had to deal with closing schools early and put out new guidelin guidelines. Parents including myself. Everybody has stepped up to the plate and has had to answer the call to this challenge we are facing. I want to thank the teachers and the parents for what theyve done and what they are preparing to do to help educate over 50 million children who are countingco on us. I want to send a thank you to all of that are helping us get schools reopened and to have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream we owe to them to give them that opportunity and with that i will yield back. Thank you to the Ranking Member for his statement and id now like to introduce the witnesses. I am honored to have the former secretary of education with us today. Secretary duncan led the department of education from 2009 through 2015. Prior to his service, secretary duncan led schools for eight years. Since leaving government hes returned to chicago where he works to help improve opportunities for young people. We are also joined by a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Doctor rivers is an epidemiologist, specializing in emerging Infectious Diseases in a recent analyst for the National Academics of science on reopening schools during the corona virus pandemic. We are also pleased to be joined by t superintendent robert of Broward County Public Schools in florida. I would like to yield to my colleague and friend congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz that represents Broward County for a brief introduction. Thank you mr. Chairman, cochairman clyburn and the subcommittee on the corona virus for allowing me to introduce an esteemed witness from my district. The largest and secondlargest in florida. And education of nearly 270,000 students and 175,000 burning adults of 241 schools comes into his, colleges and 89 charter schools. Under his leadership of our students have seen improved literacy and graduation rates, College Acceptance and curvier readiness. Hes also expanded technical programs, established the First Military academy and access to speech and debate, arts, music, education and spam offering. I can personally speak for the superintendence skillful leadership. He graduated from a Broward County Public Schools and my youngest daughter is currently a senior in the district. During the pandemic, the superintendence worked with the school board, principal, teachers, staff, parents and students to ensure everyone remains safe and that their education is not compromised. Its noo easy task at the helm f our states. Each one are even threatening to withhold funds if they do not return in person while a virus way just for the community and just as the cases spike even higher. Yesterday total cases topped 500,000, people are dying. It would only put more people at risk. The superintendent is paving a path way beginning the School Year Online and keeping children, staff and students safe more than other districts will be able to follow. Im thrilled to introduce them so you can see why he is a remarkable leader of our Broward County Public Schools. Thank you mr. Chairman and i will yield back. Thank you ms. Wasserman schultz. Next im pleased to introduce [inaudible] teaches second grade in that Unified School District in eastern arizon