Congress chose to leave unchanged a provision of culpability. This provision says School Districts have to provide at least Comparable Services with state and local funding to title i schools and nontitle i schools, but the law plainly states the School Districts shall not include teacher pay when they measure spending for of comparability. That has been the law since 1970. We didnt change it last year. There is an entirely separate provision known as provision, not supplant, that prohibits schools from using dollars for lowincome schools. Attempts to do is to change comparability by adding a new regulation. It would include teacher salaries and how they measure state and local spending and would require the state and local spending anys title i school be at least equal to the average spent in nontitle i schools. This would be to violate the law as implemented since 1976 section 1605. The Administration May get an a for cleverness, but untapped for following the line my opinion. The negotiated Ruling Committee could not agree on the proposal said thatt one member congressional intent is not necessarily being followed here. Last week, the congressional artisan Research Survey said the same thing. Crs issued a report saying the departments interpretation appears to go beyond what would be required under a plain language reading of the statute. Crs found that they regulations appeared to directly conflict with statutory language that desks to place clearly clear limits on the Department Authority and raise a significant doubts about the departments proposed regulations. I look forward to hearing from witnesses about what ive been hearing across the country is true. Here is what i have been hearing. That the departments proposed regulation to turn upside down the funding formulas of almost all the state and local School District systems across this country. Most states and local districts allocate k12 funding to schools based on staffing ratios. This often results in different amounts going to different same district because teacher salaries vary from school to school for reasons having nothing to do with the schools participation in title i. Instead, salaries vary because their teacher experience merit pay or are subject of the great or subject of the grade level they teach. Wholesaleequire transfer teachers and the breaking of collective Bargaining Agreement spirit number three come i have been hearing the School Districts will not be here will be receiving the funds to comply with proposed regulation. Number four, students could be forced to change schools. Number five, the pose regulation could increase the segregation of lowincome and highincome students. And number six, that it could require state and local School Districts to move that to the burdensome practice of detailing every individual cost on which they spend money to provide a ecig distance basic education to all students, which is what we were try to free districts from one way past the law there and according to the council of great city schools, the propose regulation would cost 3. 9 billion a year just to just just for their 69 urban School Systems to eliminate the differences in spending between schools. What the department has done for the first time is to try to put together the two major provisions of law that have always been separate. On comparability, which is the first one, members of this committee discussed and debated changing this provision we discussed at great length over the last six years. Senator bennett of colorado has lots of experience with this and had one proposal. I had another. We ultimately decided not to make changes in comparability. Instead, we included more transparency in the form of public reporting on the amount districts are spending on each student coming putting teacher salaries, so that parents and teachers know exactly how much money is being spent and can make their own decisions about what to do rather than the federal government mandating it be used in comparability calculations. Then on the second provision of the law, on supplement not supplant, we address this provision and made changes with an effort to simplify the law and make it not make it more combo hated by no stretch of the imagination did we intend does any of the language in the law say that supplement not supplant may be used to modify the comparability provision. In fact, we specifically prohibited that we prohibited secretary, from requiring local School District to identify individual costs or or services as supplemental. We prohibited the secretary from prescribing any specific methodology that districts use to distribute state and local funds. And most importantly, we prohibited the secretary from requiring a state, local district or school to equalize spending. Regulation is nothing but a deliberate attempt to no one has to guess what the law says. As the Congressional Research service is, we can just read its plain language. If the administration cant follow language on this, it raises Great Questions about what we might expect from future regulations. Senator murray. You,or murray thank chairman alexander, for holding this hearing. I appreciate all are witnesses for taking the time to be here with us today. Last year, as you know, chairman alexander and i worked together on legislation to fix no child left behind and we both agreed what everyone across the country agreed, the low was badly broken. Im glad we were able to break through that partisan gridlock and find Common Ground and pass the every Student Succeeds act with strong bipartisan support. At its heart, the nations primary and secondary education law is a civil rights law and it is in that spirit that i come along with my colleagues, work to ensure that all students will have access to a halt a quality education regardless of where they live or how they learn or how much money their parents make. Now that our allies on the books, i am committed to making sure it helps our students and our parents and our teachers and our schools in mice in my home state and across the country. Heres what the education law does. The act gives states more flex ability. But it also includes strong federal guardrails for states as they design their accountability systems. A preserves the departments role to implement and enforce the laws federal requirements. It also promotes reliance on highstakes testing. And it makes significant new investments to deseret access for our nations youngest learners, to name just a few provisions of the law. Right now, the department of education and states are taking this law from educated steps to active steps. I will continue to closely monitor several issues to make sure our law lives up to its intent to provide all students with a highquality education. I expect the department to use its full of 30 thats its full authority to hold states and schools accountable. We were deliberate in granting department that includes things such as making sure states and districts take action every year to improve student achievement in any school that has groups of students struggling. I will take a close look at guidance and regulations for School Intervention and support. Those things will be critical to help low performing schools improve. One important is fiscal accountability. I hear from teachers and principals in my home state of washington about how important federal funding is to support their work. We need to make sure we support local and state resources and do not simply replace them. The regulation known as supplement not supplant is an important fiscal accountability measure, it is important to get this right. Many stakeholders, including teachers and administrators and civil right groups have provided thoughts on how to regulate in this area. I hope as the process moves forward the department will continue to work with these groups on this issue. Collaboration will be critical, not just for one particular regulation or another but throughout process to implement every Student Succeeds act. And gets information from parents and right groups is essential in making sure the law works in the coming months and years. Ive been frustrated to hear from many stakeholders that they dont feel like they have a seat at the table as their states work on implementation and that includes teachers who arent receiving time off to be part of state planning sessions and parents who cant attend meetings during the work day. A long with the Ranking Member bobby scott in the house have asked the department to help states and districts eliminate the systemic barriers that stakeholders face in getting involved in the implementation process. Ill continue to encourage stake holders like all of those represents here today and many more to stay active and make their voices heard throughout the implementation process. It is up to all of us to uphold the legacy and promise of the primary education law works for all students and i look forward to hearing from everyone today on how we can make sure that this law helps provide a good education for every child. Thank you senator murray and thanks to you and the other members of the committee for your hard work on this legislation. Im pleased to welcome seven witnesses to our hearing today. Thank you to each of you for coming and for all youve done to help improve the education of the nations children. Senator hatch, former chairman of this committee, will introduce our first witness. Who is miss lily garcia, president of the National Education association. Senator hatch. Thank you, and i appreciate this opportunity and im pleased to be here today and grateful we could be joined by a true leader in education policy, lily garcia. I consider myself lucky to know lily. And even lucky to call her a friend. It is truly an honor to introduce her to the committee today. Miss garcia has had a remarkable path in education. She began her career as a cafeteria worker and became an aide to a special education teacher. And as young mother, she worked her way through the university of utah where she graduated magnum cum laude with a bachelors degree in education and laster earned a masters degree in instructional technology. She taught fourth and fifth and sixth grade in utah. And while in utah, she also worked with Homeless Children in a single classroom, mentored Student Teachers and acted as a Peer Assistant Team leader. After demonstrating her effectiveness in the classroom, she was named utah teacher of the year in 1989. Her passion for education extended beyond the classroom. And eventually led her to a career in policy making. She served as president of the Utah Education Association before joining the National Education association where she has served as a leader since 1996. In 2014, she was elected to serve as the president of the nea. She was instrumental in helping Congress Pass the every Student Succeeds act and im sure she will be an equally helpful person as we work to implement this groundbreaking legislation. Essa represents a momentous opportunity for students and teachers alike by removing many of the overbearing federal policies stifling classroom instruction in the past. This new law allows educators more room to innovate and tailer their teaching to the needs of individuals and individual students. Were grateful for the role miss garcia played in helping this reform become a reality. Miss garcia, we really welcome you to todays hearing and look forward to your guidance on the questions at hand and i just want to personally testify how much i appreciate what youve done with your life. Thanks so much. Thank you. Ill introduce the other witnesses and beginning with miss garcia, well ask you each to summarize your views in about five minutes and that will leave time for senators to engage in conversation and ask questions. Our second witness is miss randy weingarten, the president of the American Federation of teachers when represents 1. 6 million members nationwide and prior to that she served for 12 years as president of the United Federation of teachers, aft local 2. Our third witness is dr. Tony evers. Were getting accustomed to seeing him here. Welcome dr. Evers. He is the wisconsin state superintendent of public instruction. He serves as president of the board of council of the chief state School Officers and served on the department of educations recent negotiated rulemaking panel for regulations on the every Student Succeeds act. Our fourth witness is dr. Thomas ahart. He is the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in iowa and also served on the department of education recent negotiated rulemaking panel for regulations on the every Student Succeeds act. Our fifth witness, dr. Nora gordon, associate professor at Georgetown University and focusing on economics of education and federalism. And next well hear from denise marshall, from the executive direct patient attorneys and parent attorney and advocates. [laughter] close, wasnt i . Parent attorney and advocates. She has over 30 years of experience working in the field of disabilities. Our final witness is miss janet morgue ooeya, she is president and chief executive council of la raza and advocates for the Latino Community for education and workforce and civic engagement. Thank you each for being here. Miss garcia. Thank you so much and thank you senator hatch. I appreciate that introduction. I am president of the 3 million member National Education association but more important than that, i am a sixth grade teacher. And not only that, im a really, really good sixth grade teacher. I give myself goosebumps. Im amazing. I have spent the last 13 years fighting against what i saw as a cloud of test and punish that was hanging over every Public School in the United States of america. And i cried for joy the entire day that the president signed the new law, every Student Succeeds. That day would not have come without the leadership of senator alexander and senator murray and i just want to start by thanking you and thanking all of your colleagues for making in a day possible. I have about 14 hours worth of really good advice to give you. They told me i have five minutes. So i will talk really, really fast. Number one, and i cannot stress this enough, i am a really good teacher. You should really listen to me. And i mention that because i remember, i was in my classroom at the salt lake homeless shelter in a oneroom classroom, a k6 classroom in the shelter when congress was debating the passage of this thing called no child left behind. And i just was beside myself thinking, wait a minute, 100 of the kids are going to hit a cut score on a standardized test. That is not even possible. And i remember thinking, did anyone stop to ask a working classroom teacher how we made out a report card, how we measured success. Did anyone stop to ask a working classroom teacher what might be the unintended consequences of high stakes testing on the most vulnerable students like the students i was teaching so for me, a huge part and the first thing i want to talk about is the fact that in this new law states and districts must engage the people who know the names of the students. It says over and over again that you have to include the educators voice in developing that dashboard of indicators and how were going to be pleasuring student success. Measuring student success. Some folks in states are going to respect that and some folks arent. Were already hearing back where someone an educator has asked to sit on a committee, but they meet during the school day. And they dont provide a substitute teacher. Or you put an educator on a committee and she has to drive three hours to the meeting and there is no reimbursement for her gas to get to the meeting. So we know it is possible to do it right. We are hearing good things from places like oregon. The oregon Education Association knocked at the door and folks on the state level said come on in and their at the table and making Amazing Things happen. Very collaboratively. And then you go to new mexico, where our new mexico affiliate knocked on the door and the door was slammed in their faces and they said we dont need you. So were going to have were going to have this implemented in very different ways across the country. We have so much hope that if our voices are in the room, we will get something really good out of this much better law and we hope youll continue to encourage the state leaders to abide by the law you passed and welcome the educators to the table. Number two, you cannot possibly imagine how excited we are about better data, better information. Aside from that one side fits all standardized test, to have the dashboard of indicators we believe is the gamechanger for our students. As you know, the original 1965 esea did give School Districts some important resources for Title One Schools and other programs to help fill that resource gap that was so obvious among schools that had so much sand schools that had and schools that had so little, depending on what zip code you were in. But it was never meant to take over the primary responsibility of state and local government for running our schools. The federal governments role in esea is still to assist but what is new and what is completely appropria