Minutes. Thank you. All guests should remain in seats until the witness is allowed to leave the room. So the committee stands in recess. The committee will reconvene and come to order following our recess. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you so much madam chairwoman. Thank you so much a secretary at cardona for being here today. For keeping the focus i know it has been hard theres a lot of questions asked but i keep seeing you keeping the focus on education. Because we know education is the foundation of our democracy as well as the path for prosperity for our families. Now, i wanted to give you the time to answer a bit about the question that came up earlier. You were really not given the time i am sorry the respect to be able to explain the authorities that you have and the under the Higher Education to forgive student loan. And that authority was given to the department to the Higher Education act. Would you like to take a Quick Response to why you are acting regarding Student Loans the 30 areth doing it in question quick spirit looking very carefully at the authorities i have under the Higher Education act of the authority that was used by the last secretary as well. In the crisis that we are in with Higher Education loan system and access to college. We are using our authority carefully to make sure we are making targeted decisions to help students accomplish their goals of reaching college and following up on him bipartisan fashion but was approved to the student loane forgiveness progm but thank you for the opportunity. I think it is really important that congress is constantly assisting different industries, assisting different corporations with the idea we are going to be investing and ourpr future workforce, and our children through education is no different. Had to say americans should not help with this endeavor is very shortsighted because if we do not invest through education and our workforce, we do not have a future so i am glad you are making those decisions. I wanted to touch on another topic. We note during the pandemic it was hard on everybody. Our former president was doing a disastrous job of handling coated. But then President Biden came in under democrat led congress we passed multiple laws we pass the americans rescue plan which gis schools a lot of flexibility how to respond to these dire situations we found ourselvesa n and they used it to accelerate student learning, to address student Mental Health, to support educated workforce. Itto was a philosophy schools themselves would know best where to spend thatt money. I loved reading your testament you think of bilingual, being bilingual as a superpower. I agree. In new mexico some of those emergency relief funds were used for dual language teachers for certification. I am concerned about the Different Things that are going to happen after it expires how is your department preparing to assist schools with things like educator professor development, preparation for dual language teachers. How are we looking at the transition . How does your budget address the issue of transition and a focusing on some of the needed areas . Thank you for the question absolutely bilingualism is a superpower i think what we need to do is make sure we are empowering our students to learn more languages so they can be compared prepared for Global Competitiveness i believe that strongly but our budget does request additional dollars for our office that focuses on english english language requisition while maintaining your native language or learning english so we have a request for 50 million above last years fy 23 budget. We are continuing to support sustainability efforts working with states. As on the phone with the governor of new mexico yesterday talking about how the department of education can support weve seen more gross as a result of the use of those dollars. We have seen since 2009 for students in reading, Mental Health access. The goal is to make sure we are contingent on those efforts that we know at work. After schoolwe program, summer program, Mental Health supports we are working with states on how they can use existing funds our annual budget doesnt show up we are increasing title 3. Title i dollars to make sure schools have the dollars that needs to be successful if it. The title at 1 are so important because if we what america to succeed we need to make sure our working families those families living in the highest thank you very much for your work and i yield back. Thank you, ms. Millet your recognizer fivemi minutes. Misters secretary inn West Virginia five female students were barred from competing in track and field after refusing to compete against biologicalu, mail. In wisconsin, young girls were forced off the volleyball teams because they felt uncomfortable sharing a locker room with the biological males. When the School District was asked about the transgender athlete policy, they said they crafted it according to your title ix interpretation. Mr. Secretary, what consequences will female students face if they do not want to share a locker room with the biological mail under your title ix rule . Question. Schools have the responsibility to make sure all students feel safe including is in the bathrooms and is a lifelong educator these are decisions i have had to make as a School Principal, as a district leader. I am so glad you brought up that you are concerned about the safety of students. But the rule and guidance are putting out that youve been putting out for three years is ketaking away the safety of our daughters in their private spaces, and there locker rooms and showers and taking away theirg athletic and educational opportunities. Girls and wisconsin and West Virginia refused and there kicked off their teams. These schools are basing their decision on your rule. This is happening because if you and joe biden. Soap mr. Secretary, and Health Education class if a teacher says men student was the title a title ixcoroner says he is une the Health Teacher insists men cannot get pregnant what should the title ix coordinator say . To be happy to refer that question to the office for civil rights to provide guidance. I can say with any title ix or rules that were recently put out there is more guidance that goes along with it. I welcome an opportunity for my team to work with your constituents to make sure the implementation of a title ix too. What i want to know in biology class if the Health Teacher or the health class at the teacher says men cannot get pregnant in settlement reports that to the title ix coordinator, what should the title ix coordinator say . Because you are in charge. Ill be very happy to have your constituents get support to make sure the title ix coordinators have information. We have provided a plethora of Technical Assistance were going to continue to support regardless frequent so as you say . What would you say . Should that teacher get in trouble . Was it did not want to comment on hypotheticals without enough d information. But i will tell you is i respect different opinions across the country we are committed to supporting schools but. Youy . Ou respect a health tear or biologydo teacher saying biological mail cannot get pregnant, you arein recognizing biological but in athletics you are wiping out biological and going with gender identity. So i went to know, gender identity is not defined in your rule can you give me the official definition of gender identity . I think you said is inaccurate we have not released our title ix athletic rules. Actually you have for three years youve been putting out title ix guidance rules. I brought them with as you can see it does have to do with athletic teams. So, moving on could you please tell me what the official definition of gender identity is a question or a quick smear in the rulemaking process for athletics as you know that was submitted maybe nine months after the proposed rule for title ix so we are in the process of listening to one or 40000 comments. The schools are being threatened to have their federal funding pulled because they are afraid of the consequences the e realworld consequences of your title ix rule and your guidance you put out two. I do want to know what would you say to a female athlete who would have won a gold medal but is now getting a silver metal because a biological mail took up . Of the said congresswoman arr athletic rules have not been finalized i would be happy to work with whom ever you want our team to work with. I do have to say it you are not protecting everyone. I am here to protect girls and to stand up for families and parents across the country that are outraged over this. You are not protecting girls youre making a choice you are choosing boys over girls you are satisfied with letting a girl take the civil or metal or the biological boy takes the gold but you are going to be remembered as the education secretary under joe biden who erased girls sports for an entire generation but you should withdraw your title ix rule or resign. Thank you and i yield back to doctor fox. Thank you ms. Miller. You are recognizer five minutes. Thank you madame chairwoman. And secretary cardona thank you so much for taking the time to speak to our committee today is not here for the entire hearing i had another hearing across the hall as things work out in congress. I have been briefed on the earlier testimony. I know you have beench asked an andoff a lot of questions about fafsa im going to be limited on that and get to another issue i think is really important but i will say and i know youve heard this from everybody the number of concerned parents as well as the institutions of Higher Learning and my district that i have heard from has been overwhelming. Im sure your job is been quite overwhelming this year giving everything that is going on. On the fafsa issue i do not want to repeat things it mightve been asked and answered but i elhavent heard from some institutionsit about 30 of the additional institutional student Information Records isi are for the benefit of those who may not know that is something produced by the fafsa system. It includes data about students Financial Aid eligibility, right . Yes figure severed about 30 are sent to the colleges have errors and need to be corrected. It might be hired that number it might be higher for institutions that serve low income and first jen students. As the department determined how it will handle instances where institutions award students higher amounts of federal aid due to incorrect isr question. We have corrected that issue. Thank you for that we have corrected that issue. There were several issues in programming there is an issue with information for tax Data Information we have also worked to correct. We are communicating daily with schools. They have been bending over backwards a Financial Aid director and the College President s have been extremely communicatives in terms of assuring what concerns they have in helping us determine what the best support strategies are. I want to commend them publicly and thank them for their patience and flexibility to meet the needs of students. We have communicated colleges directly, spoken over 100 College President s myself to make sure we are hearing what their concerns are and how we can address those. And through daily communication we have been updating information on what their challenges are and how wedi can address them turks or some colleges or institutions of Higher Learning a car theyre having to claw back some of the Financial Aid they had offered to a student . No. We have communicated with them the information they were given could be used. Many schools asked us to reprocess it we have done that reprocessing for schools to have the updated information. Okay. I want to shift gears to another really critical topic, Mental Health. Secretary according to a 2022 study by the National Center for Education Statistics only 13 of Public Schools strongly agreed and 43 moderately agreed they could effectively provide Mental Health services to all students in need. That data deeply concerns me it indicates a significant gap in providing the social support to our students emotional wellbeingly. Can you discuss your department initiatives and addressing Mental Health issues in our schools . Particularly in light of 1 billion allocated to the stronger connection Grant Program . Absolutely thank you. Rightly it communicated we are to youth Mental Healthli crisis. Access to Mental Health support is critically important for our students but we know students are six times more likely to access Mental Health support that they are provided in our schools which is why we are big proponents and supporters and ask for an increase of 200 million for fullel Service Committee schools that connect with Community Partners and provide Mental Health support. The biscuit dollars have been used to increase the number of School Social workers by 40 . The number of School Nurses by 30 for. To what levels are we talkig k 12 . Yes. They are provided access but we are also working to improve scmedicaid reimbursement for sustainable dollars. As the dollars sunset they are sustainable reimbursement dollars for medicaid sober work with hhs. We currently have 13 states have signed on to do that and we are working aggressively to get as many other states signed up to get medicaid reimbursement. The goal is never to go back to a system where we have emergency room model of Mental Health in our schools. Unfortunately have to wait until the trauma happens to provide support. Oversee the dollars used for proactive strategies to support students. Thank you very much with that i yield back manager. Next thank you. You are recognized for five minutes. You are appearing with us today most concerned on our university. When it comes to influence other universities the tip of the iceberg when it comes the billions of funds to submit. More importantly some missions are useless if your department does not take enforcement seriously. Because in fact section 117 and china a single time and your tenant page written testimony today and if i am wrong, please let me know. I am wrong, please your department maintainsin a lt of open section 117 investigations. Every single one has open under Trump Administration. If you added more what i found issue close only five universities. How many are under the investigation and how many added andad how many not . We dont have a Clear Communication between the department and spirit since taking the office, why have you not launched you believe feel relationship with dangerous countries. Like china and other countries of concern that accept same as our allies. Or do you think certain countries are concerned with National Security threats increase scrutiny should those relationships be treated differently. Thank you for the christian congresswoman. Aiken share with you we should not allow foreign influence in our schools. We make sure we protect our schools and students from foreign influence. Too that end the department of education takes veryul seriously the responsibility to provide Public Information on gifts from other countries. I want to make sure i correct that. We have provided almost 39000 foreign gifts totaling over 21 billion in the last three years. Which is much more than the last administration. We are a part of the fbi National Counterintelligence task force. Were they provide and share information if there is a need for investigations that task force is the one that does it. By having transparency not only to that task force but to the public we communicate with foreign gifts are coming from. And the Law Enforcement arms are best suited to investigate. I hope we have much better communication. N. We understand exactly what kindr of tangibles you are taking and your departments. When we see the report and it is not there then we dont know exactly what you are doing and what kind of tangible steps you are taking. And just one more thing i want to ask Charter Schools and last year you came out 82023 found in that Charter School students on average learn the equivalent of additional six days per year. An added 16 days of learning i want to submit this on the record republication. Without objection fabric students in poverty achieve an t additional 23 days of learning however Biden Administration proposed 40 milliondollar cut 40 million cut to thecharter s. Why such excellent results for the students who have to add more Charter Schools. Thank you for the question. I agree with you parents should have options and Charter Schools are Vi